A source at “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” has reported that the reason behind a power outage in Ashgabat and some towns and villages of Akhal, Lebap and Dashoguz velayats of Turkmenistan, which occurred on 29 December, 2020 was a breakdown in one of the electric generating units of Mary state-owned power station.
According to the experts who are investigating the incident, an explosion has occurred in a combined cycle power plant because of poor quality maintenance.
No employees of the electric power station have been injured.
During the breakdown the electric power which was supplied from this unit to Afghanistan was also cut off.
The combined cycle power plant managed by Mary state-owned power station was commissioned in September 2018.
According to the state information agency TDH, its capacity is 1574 megawatt. 4 gas turbines, with a capacity of 263,25 megawatt each and 2 turbine steam engineы with a capacity of 260,5 megawatt each are installed at the station.
In March 2019 it was reported that President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov instructed government officials to revamp and modernize the Mary power station in order to increase its capacity.
The power station was built in 1973 with an estimated capacity of 1250 Mwatt.However, at that time, according to the state information agency, it generated 650 Mwatt of electric power.
The modernization which is performed by Turkish company Çalık Enerji Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş.is designed to increase its capacity to up to 1000-1200 Mwatt.
It should be emphasized that over a year ago Uzbekistan started imported electric power from Turkmenistan.Since that time Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy reported that irregular power supply or power outages have been recorded because of breakdowns at Turkmen power lines.
Despite this, in November the contract to purchase additional 18 million kWh of Turkmen electric power was concluded.The post An explosion at Mary electric power station led to a power outage in Ashgabat first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.