President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a meeting on priority tasks in the fuel and energy sector.
The Head of State noted that over the past ten years, large-scale reforms have been carried out in the energy sector. As a result, $23 billion in foreign investment has been attracted to the sector, and power generation facilities with a total capacity of 9.5 gigawatts have been commissioned.
At the same time, the President noted that serious shortcomings remain in the effective use of these opportunities, system management, executive discipline, and local oversight.
“We must speak frankly: the problem in the energy sector is not financing. We secure all the funding that is needed. The problem lies in the management of the system itself,” the President stressed.
It was noted that although the level of infrastructure development is virtually the same in some regions, the quality of electricity and gas supply differs significantly. This is primarily due to differences in managerial discipline, oversight, and the personal responsibility of officials.
During June and July of this year, about 4,000 accidents occurred in electricity networks. As a result, households and businesses in some regions were left without electricity for up to 8–10 hours. Moreover, in many regions, the growth in electricity consumption and the increased load on infrastructure had not been taken into account in advance.
Electricity losses in the networks amount to 17.2 percent. Over the past six months, electricity losses totaled 4.8 billion kilowatt-hours.
Despite the introduction of automated electricity and gas metering systems, hundreds of thousands of electricity and gas meters are not transmitting data to the centralized system. This hinders accurate accounting of consumption, the reduction of losses, and the reduction of accounts receivable.
For serious shortcomings in the areas under their responsibility, the Minister of Energy and the head of Regional Electric Networks JSC were dismissed from their posts. The heads of National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan JSC, Thermal Power Plants JSC, Uztransgaz JSC, and Hududgaztaminot JSC were placed on probation until the end of the year.
It was noted that the new leadership of the Ministry of Energy, Regional Electric Networks, and Uzenergyinspection must introduce a fundamentally new approach to organizing their work.
Special attention was given to the widespread introduction of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in the energy sector.
A Center for the Digitalization of the Fuel and Energy Complex and the Introduction of Artificial Intelligence Technologies will be established within the Ministry of Energy. The Center will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the entire “generation – transmission – distribution – supply” chain and develop optimal scenarios for the sector’s development.
