Kazakhstan signaled its willingness Friday to resume sending electricity into a shared regional power grid, a day after its decision to halt supply triggered blackouts in neighboring Kyrgyzstan.
The central Asian state pulled out of the shared energy scheme Thursday, citing unfair drains on the system by its increasingly-unstable neighbor Tajikistan.
The move immediately forced Kyrgyz authorities to introduce energy rationing in half the country.
Kazakh state energy company KEGOC said it was willing to resume supplies once the energy-sharing dispute was resolved, a process that could still leave its neighbors in partial darkness for weeks to come.
"I believe that we will return to a parallel working regime no later than April 15," Valeriy Li, vice-president of Kazakh state energy company KEGOC said.
"If the situation sorts itself out sooner, then we'll return to the system sooner."
Both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are currently caught in a widening regional energy crisis that has resulted in less than two hours of electricity per day being supplied to the Tajik capital Dushanbe.
An inability to share energy resources is a chronic malaise in central Asia and is exacerbated by aging Soviet-era infrastructure and the deepening global economic crisis.
Until Thursday only the southern half of Kyrgyzstan - largely separated from the north by the rugged Pamir mountains - was under a rationing regime that limited power use to about ten hours per day.
But the Kazakh decision was felt immediately in cash-strapped Kyrgyzstan, which within hours introduced power rationing during peak hours across the north of the country, which includes the capital Bishkek.
Kyrgyzstan, where power cuts has caused public discontent reacted angrily to the decision, slamming Tajikistan for sapping the system of its energy and forcing Kazakhstan's hand.
"Kazakh authorities decided to pull out of the Central Asian energy grid in response to the unsanctioned removal of Kazakh energy from the collective system," a spokesman for the country's energy ministry told AFP.
Disputes with Uzbekistan, the buffeting effects of the global financial crisis and an aging energy system pushed to the brink have raised concern that the Tajik state is in danger of collapse.