BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 27. Uzbek President
Shavkat Mirziyoyev criticized the management of the country's
energy sector on Monday, saying persistent power outages stem from
weak governance rather than a lack of funding.


This was reflected in the statement published by the official
channel of the Press Secretary to the President of the Republic of
Uzbekistan following a government meeting on the industry's
priorities.


Chairing a videoconference with government officials, Mirziyoyev
said Uzbekistan had carried out sweeping reforms in the energy
sector over the past decade, opening the industry to private
investors and foreign companies through a series of legislative
changes.


According to the president, the government has attracted $23
billion in foreign investment into the energy sector and
commissioned 9.5 gigawatts of new power generation capacity, enough
to meet the country's domestic electricity demand.


Mirziyoyev said the government had also allocated 30 trillion
soums (about $2.4 billion) to modernize electricity and gas
networks, substations, transformers and gas distribution facilities
in recent years, describing the amount as six times higher than
total investment made in the previous 25 years.


Despite the spending, the president said the sector continued to
suffer from poor management and inadequate oversight.


"The problem in the energy sector is not funding, because we
provide whatever resources are needed. The problem is the
management of the system," Mirziyoyev said.







He criticized officials at the Energy Ministry and its regional
branches for failing to ensure proper execution and accountability,
saying both residents and businesses remained dissatisfied with the
quality of electricity and gas services.


Mirziyoyev noted that nearly 4,000 accidents were recorded
across the electricity network in June and July alone, leaving
households and businesses without power for up to eight to ten
hours. He added that dozens of substations experience failures
every summer and winter, while hundreds of transformers are damaged
each year.


The president also pointed to rapid growth in electricity
consumption in several parts of the country. Over the past five
years, power demand has more than doubled in Shirin city and the
Yangihayot, Yakkasaroy and Ohangaron districts, but local
authorities and energy officials failed to anticipate that existing
infrastructure would be unable to cope with the increased load.


Mirziyoyev further criticized officials for failing to assess
the economic impact of power outages on businesses and said
regional administrations lacked accurate data on local electricity
demand, resulting in inefficient spending and significant financial
losses.


Uzbekistan has been expanding its energy system through
large-scale investments in conventional and renewable power
generation as electricity demand continues to rise alongside
economic growth, industrialization and population increases. At the
same time, the government has sought to modernize aging
transmission and distribution infrastructure to improve the
reliability of energy supplies.