30 August 2017: President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev opens Bishkek Combined Heat and Power Plant. Source: President.kg.
Before leaving his post as president of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Atambayev carried out the ceremonial opening of Bishkek’s rebuilt Combined Heat and Power plant (CHP) in August 2017. The four-year modernisation of the city’s only source of heat for over half a century was initiated by the ex-president, and cost $386 million, which was borrowed from the Chinese government on credit. The contractor chosen for the project was also Chinese, Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co LTD (ТBЕА), which built two new boiler units, each with an emission capacity of 150 megawatts (MW) of power and 150 gigacalories of heat. In the course of the ceremony, Atambayev referred to those who claimed that he hadn’t built a thing during his six years in power as “dimwits” and “blind”: “Today, we bow to no one. We can cut off ‘certain countries’ lights at New Year. Energy specialists will understand what I’m saying.”
