Particularly hot weather in Uzbekistan over the past 10 days or so has caused occasional blackouts as the state power company looks to ration electricity supplies to households and industry amid a surge in use of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. This has been the second drastic spike in temperatures the country has seen since the start of the summer, which has seen some areas recording temperatures in the high forties Celsius. As energy officials have also told Eurasianet, the extent of the sustained heat has adversely affected power transmission grids located mainly under the open sun. Trains have been running slow on two lines of the Tashkent metro to relieve the strain on the grid. The confluence of problems is again focusing thoughts on how best to prepare Uzbekistan for the ever-increasing demand for electricity. According to official figures published in May, the volume of annual electricity production […]