Iran and Azerbaijan have agreed to implement pre-agreed documents on the Khudafarin and Maiden Tower power plants on the border at the Araz River, as well as to continue their work on hydropower and power plants, to identify investments and contractors. The agreement was reached at a meeting of the Joint Technical Commission with the participation of members of Azerbaijan and Iran.

During the meeting, it was agreed that more than $22 million would be needed to complete the work and that the contract for the power plants would be determined by the World Bank. It is forecasted that contractors will be identified, and work will begin within the next 4 months.

Alasgar Hasanov, head of the department of the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan, told that the total capacity of the Khudafarin HPP on the Araz River is 200 megawatts (100 megawatts on the Azerbaijani side), and the total capacity of the Maiden Tower HPP is 80 megawatts. Both HPPs plan to produce a total of 716 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year (358 million kilowatt-hours on the Azerbaijani side). At the same time, as a result of the commissioning of hydro junctions, the Azerbaijani side will provide 252,000 hectares of existing, and 12,000 hectares of new agricultural lands with irrigation water.

Preliminary design work on the Khudafarin and Maiden Tower projects dates back to the former Soviet Union. After long discussions, the final technical project was prepared in 1991. Construction began in 1992 but was halted after the territories came under Armenian control. Beginning in 1996-1997, construction work on both hydro junctions was continued by Iranian companies on the basis of a bilateral agreement. In 2016, the Government of Azerbaijan and the Government of Iran signed an agreement on cooperation for the construction, operation, use of energy and water resources of the Khudafarin and Maiden Tower hydroelectric power stations and hydroelectric power stations on the Araz River. According to the agreement, a Joint Technical Commission was established to continue joint construction and operation of the Khudafarin and Maiden Tower hydro junctions and hydroelectric power stations on the Araz River. The Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan has been appointed the authorized body for the activities of this commission. Working groups have been established to implement the tasks assigned to the Joint Technical Commission and work is underway in relevant areas.

At present, the construction of dams at both junctions is 99 percent complete. The customer for the projects from Azerbaijan is Azerenergy OJSC.