Afghanistan will receive 25% less electricity from Tajikistan during the upcoming winter of 2025. This was announced by Abdul Bari Omar, Director General of Afghanistan’s national power company, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), in an interview with Amu.tv, Asiaplus.tj reports.
According to Omar, the reduction is due to Tajikistan’s internal difficulties with energy supply during the cold season. “Currently, Kabul and several provinces are receiving electricity from Tajikistan. However, according to the information we have, this winter the volume of supply will be reduced by a quarter compared to last year,” he said.
Tajikistan typically exports around 150 megawatts of electricity to Afghanistan annually. Most of the supply occurs during the spring and summer months, as the country itself experiences shortages in electricity during the autumn and winter. As Asiaplus.tj notes, last winter, residents in several regions of Tajikistan received electricity for only three hours in the morning and five hours in the evening. The restrictions affected not only households but also small businesses.
According to Tajikistan’s Ministry of Energy, in the first half of 2025, the country exported 718 million kilowatt-hours of electricity to Afghanistan worth 312 million somoni (about $33 million). This accounted for nearly 64% of Tajikistan’s total electricity exports during this period.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan is facing an acute electricity shortage. The country’s daily demand is around 1,500 megawatts, of which only about 720 MW is covered through imports from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. At present, only about 40% of Afghanistan’s population has access to electricity, and any disruption in imports has a serious impact on daily life and business operations.
The electricity supply agreement between Tajikistan and Afghanistan was signed in 2008 for a term of 20 years. Under the agreement, the two countries sign an annual supplemental protocol that specifies supply volumes and pricing for the upcoming year.
Tajik authorities emphasize that electricity exports to Afghanistan are carried out mainly in the spring-summer period. During the colder months, when Tajikistan itself faces energy shortages, only minimal volumes are supplied to Afghanistan - mainly to maintain cross-border infrastructur.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
July 31, 2025