Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- ACWA Power has commissioned the first power unit of a thermal power plant in Syrdarya region. The Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan reports this.

According to the department, the ceremony to launch generating capacities at the thermal power plant near the city of Shirin took place on 27 October 2023. The thermal power plant began to supply electricity to the general network.

The plant currently supplies 120 MW of electricity to the grid. By the end of 2023, the capacity of the thermal power plant will be 1000 MW, and by the end of March 2024 - 1500 MW.

When the plant operates at full capacity, it will produce 12 billion kWh of electricity per year. The project will save 1.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year through the use of the most modern energy-saving technologies.

In March 2020, an investment agreement was signed in Tashkent between the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the ACWA Power company on the construction of a combined cycle power plant with a capacity of 1,500 MW at the Syrdarya Thermal Power Plant

ACWA Power (Saudi Arabia) will invest up to US$1.2 billion in the construction of a 1,500 MW power plant at the Syrdarya Thermal Power Plant on a public-private partnership basis.

Construction work on the site started at the beginning of 2021.

The project is financed by a group of international lenders - the EBRD, the OPEC Fund for International Development, DEG (Deutsche Investitions-Und Entwicklungsgesellschaft Mbh), AIIB and others.

The general contractor for the project is China Energy Engineering Corporation. In 2022, China’s sovereign wealth fund Silk Road acquired a 49% stake in the future thermal power plant from ACWA Power.