The Black Sea Energy Cable project is emerging as a central component of a new transregional energy framework that can connect Central Asia with Europe and reshape the logic of energy network development across Eurasia. This was stated by Abid Malik, President of ACWA Power for Central Asia, at a seminar on the prospects of creating an Asian supergrid, held within the 59th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors in Samarkand, Report informs.
Malik noted that several energy integration platforms are already active in Central Asia. For instance, the CASA-1000 project links the power systems of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and is currently being expanded to include Afghanistan and Pakistan. At the same time, the Central Asian Unified Energy System operates across five regional countries – from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
He added that the CAREC program plays a key coordinating and developmental role, acting as a catalyst for synergy among existing projects and helping to deepen regional energy integration.
The key question now, according to Malik, is how far these systems can be scaled – not only to cover all countries in the region but also with the possibility of connecting Mongolia.
Particular attention is being paid to linking Central Asian energy systems with Azerbaijan and Georgia, and then accessing the European market across the Black Sea, especially towards Romania and Hungary. Malik emphasized that this represents the future of energy networks, as sovereign states are beginning to recognize the real economic benefits of building such interconnectors.
He also pointed out that while Europe leads in cross-border energy infrastructure, similar discussions are now actively taking place in a wider geographical context, including projects connecting Saudi Arabia with Europe via the Middle East, the Mediterranean, or Türkiye. He concluded that political will remains the decisive factor, and it emerges once the large‑scale economic benefits of energy system integration become clear.
https://report.az/en/energy/azerbaijan-becoming-key-hub-for-asia-europe-energy-supergrid