Turkmenistan, Ashgabad, Sept. 26 /Trend, H. Hasanov/
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) held a one-day seminar entitled "Modern SCADA and Voice Communication Systems" for specialists from the Ministry of Energy of Turkmenistan and the Turkmenenergo company, a report of the U.S. Embassy in Turkmenistan said.
According to the report, the seminar is part of the Regional Energy Security, Efficiency and Trade Project (RESET).
"Today's event offered participants the opportunity to study how this program can be integrated with other information systems, compare different SCADA systems, and learn data exchange standards," the report said.
Experts also presented information on the most recent developments in modern voice communication technologies, which are critical in controlling power flows through energy grids.
The seminar was designed to provide further information to the government as it seeks to upgrade to the most modern and efficient technologies for protecting the power grid and generation facilities, reduce outages, and ensure reliable power supplies as domestic demand grows and electricity exports increase.
SCADA - The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition - is a computer system used to monitor and control plants and equipment in a variety of industrial sectors, including the energy sector.
This system is used in all sectors of the economy that require operator control.
Turkmenistan, which is rich in natural gas, has been actively diversifying its economy in recent years. The expansion of electricity exports became one of the strategic spheres. At this stage, electricity is exported to Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey.
The possibilities of transporting electricity to Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and the Caucasus are being studied.
Turkmenistan plans to produce electricity up to 27.4 billion kilowatt/hours by 2020, and to bring its volume to 35.5 billion kilowatt/hours by 2030. Currently, the installed capacity of all power plants of Turkmenistan's power system amounts to 4,151.7 MW, including 1,792 MW, or 43.2 percent accounts for modern gas turbines.
According to the strategy of industry development by 2030, it is planned to build four gas turbine power stations of the combined cycle with total capacity of 1,496 MW.
The large-scale modernization of the existing steam turbine plants, in particular the first steam-turbine power plant of the Mary Power Plant was modernized in 2006. By 2020, corresponding work will be carried out at another 10 power units which will provide an increase in generation capacity by 645 MW.
