It’s a long way from Tajikistan to upstate New York but Madina Kuranova, Special Projects Manager for Pamir Energy, an electric utility in Tajikistan, made the trip this year to Cornell University to study as a Humphrey Fellow. That made it possible for Kuranova to visit Washington, DC recently, where she stopped by the office of Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. (AKF USA) and gave a presentation to staff about Pamir Energy, which AKF USA has supported.

Pamir Energy has restored clean renewable electric power in eastern Tajikistan, with a market-based approach that inspired new demand. What’s more, the utility is now reaching across borders to supply power to rural parts of Afghanistan, where communities are getting electric power for the first time.

With major investment from the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Pamir Energy took over the energy utility concession in eastern Tajikistan in 2003, at a time when the electric grid was in deep decline following a decade of civil war. Before Pamir Energy rehabilitated the hydropower plants (which fell into disrepair after the Soviet period ended), people in Tajikistan had despaired of getting electricity again. With families forced to cut trees for fuel simply to survive the punishing Tajik winters, deforestation for fuelwood felled 70 percent of the country’s forests. (See this previous blog for a story of one such family.) Now, as Kuranova explained, the rehabilitated system generates 33 megawatts annually and has 31,000 customers.

The improvements reduced inefficiencies in the system by more than half, from 35% to 14%. In the Soviet period people expected to receive electricity for free, and that expectation continued. But Pamir Energy managed to instill confidence and mobilize communities to create a market demand. Customers became willing to pay for reliable service. Alongside wider demand, a grant from the Swiss government allowed the utility to sell electricity to needy families at a subsidized rate.

In 2008 the company started extending electrification across Tajikistan’s border to Shugnan in northern Afghanistan, where many communities without electricity had wistfully looked across the border for years at the lights at night in Khorog. With renewed Swiss support, the company will continue equitable billing that allows poor families access to the grid; PE will take up the subsidy itself after 2014.

The average household electric bill, Kuranova said, is US$15 per month. That is much cheaper – and cleaner – than the biomass and diesel power it replaces. In homes with electricity, families released from the chore of gathering fuelwood can be more productive. Schools report improved test scores where children have electricity to study after dark. Furthermore, in Afghanistan the expanding grid lights the computer center of the University of Central Asia’s office in Faizabad, and opens the way for future e-health service in Badakhshan province.

Pamir Energy’s long-term plan includes reaching 400,000 customers in Afghanistan, with donor funding. Beyond that, it plans to build new plants for a total capacity of 200 megawatts, with support from IFC and the Asian Development Bank. Ultimately Pamir Energy plans to knit together an electric grid across South Asia, with a goal to start working in Pakistan in 10 years.

Kuranova’s visit to the AKF USA office helped to bring a success story into focus and added another strand to a continuing relationship.