Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Infrastructure as a Foundation for Job Creation
Table 2.8: Enterprise Survey Results, Uzbekistan, 2013
Indicator
Uzbekistan
Eastern Europe 
& Central Asia
Number of electrical outages in a typical month
5.7
1.5
If there were outages, average duration of a typical 
electrical outage (hours)
4.8
3.3
If there were outages, average losses due to electrical 
outages (% of annual sales)
6.6
2.2
Percent of firms owning or sharing a generator
5.1
17.8
If a generator is used, average proportion of electricity 
from a generator (%)
23.9
9.6
Source: World Bank. 
Enterprise Survey
. Uzbekistan (2013). http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/data/
exploreeconomies/2013/uzbekistan#infrastructure (accessed 29 August 2019)
Electricity supply and demand mismatches arise during winter when 
electricity demand surges, as electricity is mainly used for heating. Supply is 
unreliable due to transmission bottlenecks, aging electricity generation plants, 
and insufficient investment. The issue is more pronounced in the southern 
and western regions, where blackouts are common and last 2–6 hours a 
day in winter months. The country experienced a severe power shortage in 
2012, when rolling blackouts occurred almost throughout Uzbekistan. In 
cities, blackouts lasted for several hours daily; in rural villages electricity was 
not available for weeks. During the winter crisis in 2010, unserved energy 
amounted to about 860 gigawatt-hours or about 1.7% of total consumption. 
Economic losses due to the shortage are estimated at $52 million (World 
Bank 2013). The possibility of supplementing electricity supply with imported 
electricity has been limited because of the unreliable operations of the Central 
Asia Unified Power System.
Source: World Bank. Enterprise Survey. Uzbekistan (2013). http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/data/
exploreeconomies/2013/uzbekistan#infrastructure (accessed 29 August 2019)