The wording was a tease: “I want to tell you a secret today: in the near term we are running big preparations on a second station too.” Nothing in the published remark points to a site, a vendor or money.
“The import line now runs more than 4 times the export line.”
The first station gives the scale of what a second would mean. It is rising in Jizzakh region's Farish district: 4 units, 2 VVER-1000 reactors of a gigawatt each and 2 RITM-200N small units of 55 MW, 2,110 MW in total, up to 17 billion kWh a year, at a cost capped at $9.5 billion and financed mostly by Russian export credit. Start-up of the first small reactor is planned for October or November 2029, the first big unit for 2033, completion by 2034 or 2035.
The energy ledger explains the appetite. In the first half-year Uzbekistan's gas imports rose 41.4% to $971.7 million while exports fell 34.4% to $232.9 million, with shipments to China down; the import line now runs more than 4 times the export line. Mirziyoyev's stated purpose is guaranteed electricity for investors and lower production costs.