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In 2002, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), in partnership with the Government of Tajikistan and the International Finance Corporation, formed PamirEnergy. Since then, the company has repaired the electrical infrastructure of GBAO, expanded hydroelectric capacity and transmitted surplus energy from Tajikistan to Afghanistan.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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The Pamir Energy hydro power plant in Murghab serves the remote communities living in and near Murghab. Over 90% of households now have access to clean, reliable and affordable electricity.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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The success of the Pamir Energy hydropower plant in Murghab, pictured here, proves that small-scale hydropower plants can provide reliable, clean and affordable electricity – 24 hours a day, seven days a week – over the long-term. Pamir Energy restored 11 small hydropower plants and upgraded 4,300km of old transmission and distribution facilities in East Tajikistan.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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Access to electricity has unleashed entrepreneurial energy in the region. When Deh village started receiving electricity after 20 years, Lutfiya built a sauna and shower. Because electricity is half the price of wood or gasoline, she plans to open a gas station and an electrical carpentry workshop with her husband.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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Since returning from Russia to Deh village in 2006, Hamida has found daily life transformed by electricity. It has benefited women and girls in particular, as they no longer have to spend hours collecting fuelwood – which allows more time for education and income-generating activities. “I used to have to wash clothes manually for four hours every two days,” says Hamida. “Now it is 30 minutes in a washing machine so I have lots of time to do other things like spend time with the children. Before I would have to spent all day collecting wood, now there's no need."
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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The renewable energy produced by Pamir Energy’s plants, like this one at the new Hydro Power Plant in Murghab, Tajikistan, has displaced the need to burn trees or use polluting diesel generators. Due to its limited greenhouse emissions, Pamir Energy has been able to generate revenue by selling carbon credits.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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In addition to generating clean electricity, Pamir Energy continues to be a source of livelihood and skill development for over 600 local residents and 200 contractors, like this customer service centre in Murghab, Tajikistan.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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The Vanj Pamir Energy Hydro Power Plant, Tajikistan, helped Pamir Energy win the 2017 International Ashden Award for Increasing Energy Access for its work in bringing hydropower to 220,000 people in East Tajikistan and 35,000 people in North Afghanistan, as well as to many businesses, schools, and health centres.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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Over 70 percent of Pamir Energy’s customers in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) connected to the main grid now enjoy electricity 24 hours a day for the first time since the end of the Soviet era, like this woman using an electric cooker and oven at Deh village.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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In total, Pamir Energy has implemented over 30 projects, including the full rehabilitation of 11 hydro power plants that provide a little more than 44 MW in generation capacity (a 12th plant with a generation capacity of 11MW is on the way)
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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Since 2002, Pamir Energy has restored 11 micro hydro power plants and upgraded 4,300 km of transmission lines, including the Khorog 1 Hydro Power Plant, in Khorog, Tajikistan, pictured here.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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With the construction of the Ishkashim Hydro Power Plant in 2013, Pamir Energy began exporting surplus energy from the cross-border regions of Tajik Ishkashim into Afghan Ishkashim.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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Access to electricity opens up economic potential. Carpenters in the Vanj Valley, for example, can now use electric machinery. Through efficiencies and smart technologies, Pamir Energy is able to operate the entire utility at the lowest average weighted tariff in the world -- 3.25 US cents per kWh.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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By implementing hydro power plant projects and reducing transmission losses from 39 percent in 2006 to 10 percent (in 2018), Pamir Energy supplies reliable, clean, affordable electricity to 96 percent of the population of Badakhshoni Kuhi in Eastern Tajikistan.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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The Pamir Energy company is based in the high mountains of eastern Tajikistan, where it is common to have bitter winters and, increasingly, earthquakes, avalanches and mudslides. The area is also socially complex, bordering China, the Kyrgyz Republic and Afghanistan.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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A group of engineers surveys the site of Pamir Energy's new Hydro Power Plant in Murghab. The renewable energy produced by Pamir Energy’s plants has limited greenhouse emissions, which has allowed Pamir Energy to generate revenue by selling carbon credits.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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For those working at the Pamir Energy network control centre in Tajikistan, it is clear that the advent of hydro power has clearly affected the quality of life.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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In 2002, when Pamir Energy began, only 13 percent of households in Tajikistan received power 12 hours a day. Thanks to a breakneck expansion that includes this hydro power plant in Rushan, Tajikistan, 70 percent of households in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) received electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The remaining 30 percent receive 16-18 hours of power a day.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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In addition to lighting the homes and streets of Khorog, Tajikistan, electricity makes washing and ironing clothes is easier. Water can be boiled quickly and showers are hot. Respiratory disorders due largely to burning wood for heating and cooking have been reduced. The reduction in deforestation for fuel is helping to cut the risk of landslides and avalanches. Schools have internet access. Commercial enterprises like cafes and bakeries are flourishing. Medical facilities are more effective now that medication can be safely chilled and surgeons are able to use safer and more modern equipment.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
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Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and a five-year civil war, Tajikistan’s electrical infrastructure was in need of significant investment. Among the most affected areas was the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), where economic and human development was stifled during the cold winter months as a result of a lack of electricity for heating and the consequent closure of schools, health centres and businesses.
Many of the region’s 220,000 residents resorted to wood fuel for their heating and cooking needs during the winter, resulting in the decimation of 70 percent of the region’s forests within a decade and a sharp increase in respiratory disorders due to smoke inhalation.
To address the situation, in 2002, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), in partnership with the Government of Tajikistan and the International Finance Corporation, formed PamirEnergy. Since then, the company has repaired the electrical infrastructure of GBAO, expanded hydroelectric capacity and transmitted surplus energy from Tajikistan to Afghanistan.
As a result of PamirEnergy’s efforts, electricity coverage has expanded from 13 percent of households receiving 12 hours of electricity per day in 2002 to 96 percent of households receiving 24/7 electricity in 2016.
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