Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev criticized the management of the fuel and energy sector, stating that its main problems are not related to a lack of funding, but to management effectiveness, Daryo.uz reports.
In recent years, $23 billion in foreign investment has been attracted to the energy sector, 9.5 GW of new generating capacity has been commissioned, and 30 trillion soums have been allocated to modernizing electricity and gas networks.
Despite these large investments, approximately 4,000 power outages occurred in June and July alone, leaving consumers without power for up to 8-10 hours. The President demanded increased accountability for managers and improved oversight of infrastructure.
The situation demonstrates that Uzbekistan is moving from a phase of large-scale expansion of energy capacity to a need to improve the efficiency of the existing system.
The rapid growth in investment and generation does not address the problem of deteriorating networks and weak governance at the regional level. Accurate demand forecasting is becoming especially important, as errors in energy balance assessments lead not only to outages but also to the inefficient use of public funds.
Power supply reliability is becoming a critical factor for Uzbekistan's economy: outages directly increase business costs, hinder industrial production, and can reduce the country's attractiveness to new investors.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
July 27, 2026