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Kyrgyzstan traces Central Asia blackout to Toktogul hydropower failure
The Kyrgyz Energy Ministry said a short-term shutdown of two generators at the Toktogul Hydroelectric Power Station triggered grid-wide power-flow changes and emergency controls, with the outage spreading from Bishkek to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
Kyrgyzstan provided clarity on the origin of a recent blackout that disrupted power in four Central Asian states, while denying responsibility for a cascading outage. OilPrice reports that outages were first reported in Bishkek on the afternoon of August 14 before spreading to southern Kazakhstan and portions of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry initially attributed the disruption, which lasted several hours, to a sudden change in power flow across the regional grid. Conflicting accounts between Kazakh and Kyrgyz officials persisted over the source in the following days.
On August 17, the Kyrgyz Energy Ministry published a statement saying it was behind a technological disruption. It said the trouble began with a failure at the Toktogul hydropower plant, where a short-term shutdown of two generators was recorded, leading to changes in power flows and the activation of emergency control systems.
The statement said Kyrgyz authorities implemented safeguard procedures to isolate and regulate transmission flows, containing the disruption stemming from the Toktogul incident, according to OilPrice.