Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Uzbekistan’s Prosecutor General’s Office has completed an inspection of “Tashkent City Electric Networks” (TGES) following a series of power outages and voltage drops across the capital. The audit revealed numerous systemic deficiencies that have been negatively impacting service quality.

According to the findings, emergency blackouts and voltage fluctuations were recorded in various districts of Tashkent on 24–25 July. A comprehensive review of TGES operations was carried out with the involvement of technical specialists.

Currently, the capital has over 823,000 electricity consumers — an increase of 47,600 compared to 2024. Electricity consumption has also risen from 7.6 billion kWh in 2022 to 8.7 billion kWh in 2024, with average annual growth of 621 million kWh or more than 9%.

The operation of TGES’s call center (shortcode 1154) came under strong criticism. Despite receiving hundreds of calls daily, only five operators work each shift, resulting in queues of 60–70 calls. As a corrective measure, 10 additional operator positions will be created.

The inspection also found the consumer notification system unsatisfactory. On 23 July, no alerts were issued for 64 emergency incidents, and in 112 cases information was delayed. Going forward, information about planned and emergency outages will be disseminated promptly via local government websites and major online platforms.

To improve response efficiency, prosecutors have been assigned to district emergency teams, and dispatcher operations have been reinforced.

As a result of the investigation, 28 officials have been disciplined — including the TGES director, 11 heads of district power enterprises, 13 chief engineers, and 3 dispatchers.

The review revealed acute resource shortages. TGES currently operates with 78 emergency teams and 34 vehicles — insufficient for timely incident response. An additional 35 staff members are needed.

Over the past three years, around 30% of TGES staff have resigned due to low wages and heavy workloads. This is especially evident in operational teams, where 228 specialists (45%) have left.

Of the city’s 9,749 km of power lines, more than 2,540 km (26%) are in need of major repairs. Out of 90 substations, 9 require modernization, and 2 need capacity upgrades.

Technical support is also lacking. Of 11 mobile diagnostic vans, 6 are outdated and only 2 are fit for night operations — severely limiting emergency response capabilities during multi-district incidents.

To bolster the system’s resilience, authorities proposed hiring 26 additional personnel (13 engineer-technicians and 13 driver-technicians) and purchasing 10 modern lab vehicles. Each vehicle is estimated to cost 1 billion soums.

The Prosecutor General’s Office emphasized the urgent need for a comprehensive overhaul of the city’s power grid infrastructure, stronger workforce capacity, and improved consumer service delivery.