As stated by the World Bank, the project development objective is to operationalize the construction of Kambarata-1 HPP and strengthen regional cooperation in Central Asia. 

he Kambarata-1 HPP, currently under development, is a transformative greenfield hydropower project, emerged among the least-cost projects for expanding clean energy resources in the Kyrgyz Republic and the Central Asia region. The project is located upstream of the Naryn river in the Kyrgyz Republic. Although initially conceived during the Soviet Union era in the 1980s, construction never commenced due to a lack of financing, which is estimated at around US$4 billion.

In 2014, SNC Lavalin prepared a feasibility study for the project. Upon commissioning, the project will have an installed capacity of 1,880 MW (~50% of current installed capacity in the country), a 260-meter-high dam, 5.4 billion cubic meter reservoir, and 6 TWh annual generation. The project will serve as the main foundation of the country’s energy system, facilitating the decarbonization pathway and significantly improving water resource management in Central Asian region.

The Kambarata-1 HPP project could generate the following significant economic, social, and environmental benefits for the Kyrgyz Republic if it is developed in a sustainable manner. It will:

(i) support the government’s vision towards a green and affordable energy future;
(ii) achieve energy security by resolving the country’s winter energy deficits;
(iii) enable the energy security and political autonomy by avoiding reliance on imported energy, including from Russia;
(iv) significantly gear power generation toward meeting winter peak demand, thus fundamentally solving the country’s seasonal energy deficits;
(v) generate sustainable export revenues, thereby improving the sector financing performance;
(vi) enable the diversification of the country’s electricity mix through integration of solar and wind energy at scale;
(vii) strengthen the regional coordination; and
(viii) improve resilience to water related risks such as floods, droughts, and managed irrigation in the region.

International Energy Agency’s net-zero assessment also confirms the hydropower as the backbone of global electricity security and the most cost-effective, dispatchable, and flexible low-carbon technology option to integrate solar and wind.

Kamabarata-1 is a regional project in nature. With demand expected to grow by 30 percent by 2030, and almost triple by 2050, substantial scale-up of generation capacity is needed for the region to cater to its growing needs while supporting a clean energy transition. The project, if fully funded, would be transformative as it would contribute to meeting the growing energy demand and lower costs of energy transition in the Central Asia region, enhance energy security through the further development of the Central Asia regional power market and help decarbonize the electricity grids in the Central Asia region, which are currently highly dependent on coal and gas (above 70 percent) for power generation. The Bank’s regional planning analyses confirm that Kambarata-1 would displace gas and coal fired generation in the region and thus support the region low carbon development. In addition, the Kambarata-1 project will enable large-scale deployment of variable renewable energy in the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan through its flexible and storage capacity, facilitating the decarbonization pathway in Central Asia. Furthermore, the Kamabarata-1 project would allow for better management of resources in Central Asia.

World Bank Team Leaders:

Maksudjon Safarov - Senior Energy Specialist
Aleix Serrat Capdevila - Senior Water Resources Specialist

No contacts provided at the time of disclosure.

Implementing Agency - Ministry of Energy:

Nurlan Sadykov - Deputy Minister
Email: minenergo@mail.gov.kg 

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