1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Preamble 1. This is the third Semi-Annual Environmental Monitoring Report (SAEMR) for the Power Sector Development Program for the reporting period from July to December 2022. 2. The project became effective in March 2021. The scheduled closing date is September 2026. 1.2 Headline Information 3. The contract with the G1 contractor, Hexing Electrical, got signed on 1 July 2022. The contract with the G2 contractor was signed with the JV Pinggao-Kaifa on 28 July 2022. The Contractors are currently preparing the detailed design of the works. No civil works have started yet. 4. A safeguards coordination meeting between the PMU, STB, the 2 contractors and the Project Implementation Consultant (PIC) took place in November 2022. In December 2022, the public consultation where information on the project GRM was disclosed, happened in 4 out of the 7 cities under the scope of the project. Public consultations could not be performed in the remaining cities due to the weather conditions. It is scheduled to be performed in those remaining cities by May 2023. The IEE will be updated to insert the public consultation minutes and the findings of the environmental audit of the existing facilities conducted in December 2022, and will be submitted to the ADB and the Environmental Agency. The environmental, health and safety (EHS) personnel of the G2 contractor have been appointed and for G1 contractor are expected to be in place by May 2023. The SSEMP, the Emergency Response Plan and the Health and Safety Management Plan will be in place by June 2023. More information on the next activities to be implemented by the project to bridge the compliance gaps are included in Table 8.

2 PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND CURRENT ACTIVITIES 2.1 Project Description 5. The Power Sector Development Program focuses on five output areas, of which outputs 1 and 2 are the policy component, and outputs 3–5 are the investment project: - Output 1: Power subsector governance structure strengthened; - Output 2: Financial management of power utilities improved; - Output 3: Sustainable corporate management in the new distribution company introduced; - Output 4: Sector’s reform and operational capacity strengthened. - Output 5: Retail billing and collection system modernized. 6. The Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Project covers (i) metering infrastructure in seven cities and meter data transfer to control centres, (ii) a new back-up control centre in Dushanbe and upgrade of existing control centre in Khujand as back-up, and (ii) upgrade of existing low voltage (LV) and medium voltage (MV) networks to facilitate AMI project and reduce system technical losses. The project is mostly focused on the capital city of Dushanbe and six other cities – Dangara, Panjakent, Istaravshan, Buston, Konibodom, and Isfara; and also includes activities all around the country (boundary meters’ enhancement in 35kV and 10kV selected substations). The location of the seven cities under the scope of the project is presented below in Figure 1.