In the Republic of Uzbekistan, the electricity demand has been growing at an annual average rate of 2% while the economy has been growing steadily since 2002. According to the electricity demand forecast made by the state-run electricity company of Uzbekistan in 2004 for the 10 years from 2005 to 2014, the demand will keep growing at about the same rate. With 8.1% of economic growth in 2009, further growth of electricity demand is expected. The electricity demand in 2015 is estimated at 57.9TWh.Although the current gross rated capacity of power generation in the country is approx. 12, 400MW (86% by thermal power, 14% by hydraulic power), the effective generation capacity in 2008 remained at approx. 10, 000MW due to obsolete equipments (over 40-50 years old) and other factors.