Kyrgyz Energy Minister: We Will Warn of Power Outages

Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Energy plans to inform the public in advance and openly about any possible restrictions on electricity supply during the upcoming autumn-winter period. Minister Altynbek Rysbekov said this at a session of the Jogorku Kenesh, the country's parliament, while answering a question from deputy Dastan Bekeshev.

Bekeshev expressed scepticism about assurances of uninterrupted power supply in winter and urged the ministry to publish precise outage schedules in advance if there is a capacity shortage, so that citizens and businesses can prepare. Rysbekov backed the initiative and said specialists are already carrying out preliminary calculations to identify potentially problematic energy nodes.

Load-shedding schedules will be agreed with local authorities, and information on capacity shortages and rolling blackouts will be communicated to the public openly, promptly and in full. The ministry noted that Kyrgyzstan imports about 4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually and that scheduled winter outages are not officially planned, although a capacity shortage is possible during peak loads.