Bishkek Thermal Power Plant

Phases

History

However, the Bishkek Therman Power Plant Modernization Project was plagued by controversy. Major failures occurred within 5 months of the power plant being put into operation. Some boilers collapsed, causing power outages and stopping heating. In 2015, the Chamber of Audits, a state body tasked with overseeing government spending, issued a report questioning why the TBEA contract was not put out to tender when other companies were interested in bidding. Auditors also found that no technical feasibility study was undertaken to evaluate the needs and costs of the project. Nurlan Omurkul, who was chief of the Bishkek TPP, said that he had harbored strong doubts about hiring a company with no track record of building power stations, but that he had been badgered by senior Kyrgyz officials to endorse a decision that he said had obviously already been made. He told the New York Times that ‘I’ve worked my whole life in power and heating plants and knew all along that the Chinese price of $386 million was too expensive.’ Another Chinese company, China Machinery Engineering Corporation, offered a lower bid, $356 million, according to a parliamentary commission. But the Chinese Embassy reportedly insisted that its offer be dismissed. Eventually, the country’s former Prime Minister (Jantoro Satybaldiev), former mayor of Bishkek (Kubanychbek Kulmatov), and former Energy Minister (Osmonbek Artykbaev) were arrested on corruption charges and accused of using their positions to lobby for the interests of a Chinese company (TBEA) in the selection process of the contractor for the project. Prosecutors in the case claimed that rigged bidding and inflated pricing would cost the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic as much as $111,252,797.

Finance

Operators

Contractors

Sources