However, exports in 2008 were significantly less because of the extraordinarily cold winter, with a record-high production of electricity that almost depleted the water reserves in the reservoir at the Toktogul hydropower station, the largest in the country. The project started in 1986 in Soviet times in a completely different context, and was designed to meet the demand in electricity and irrigation water for the whole region. With the emergence of new independent smaller republics in 1991, the plant capacity appeared oversized for single Kyrgyzstan and construction has slowed due to financial problems.