Regional cooperation is not an alternative to national energy security, but rather one of its tools, according to the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) report ‘Energy Without Borders: The Architecture of Energy Interconnectivity in Central Asia’, provided to Trend.
“Central Asia already possesses what many regions have to build up over decades: physical interconnection of power systems, experience of cross-border power flows, seasonal complementarity of resources and institutional memory of parallel operation. However, under the new circumstances, this advantage is not enough. Rising demand, ageing assets, a shortage of reserves, the accelerated roll-out of renewable energy, hydropower constraints and the development of external corridors are changing the very nature of the regional energy agenda,” the report states.
The bank’s analysts note that the key question now is not whether Central Asia’s power systems are interconnected, but to what extent this interconnection can be reliable, manageable, financially sustainable and acceptable to all participants.
“In this sense, regional cooperation is not an alternative to national energy security, but one of its tools. Countries in the region retain responsibility for tariff policy, security of supply and the development of their own energy assets,” the report states.
