Paper Looks at Kazakh Plans to Increase Electricity Generation in Country

The following is an excerpt from Botagoz Omar’s article “Electricity parts”, published by the Kazakh newspaper Novoye Pokoleniye on 29 August:

The production of electricity in the republic [Kazakhstan] is increasing, but, at the same time, its consumption is also rapidly growing. As a result, there are rolling blackouts in the south of the country, and the people of Kazakhstan are being constantly urged to save electricity and heat.

According to the Kazakh Statistics Agency, electricity generation increased to 47.35bn kWh in January-July this year, which is 7.3 per cent more compared the same period last year.

[Passage omitted: electricity consumption was 72bn kWh in 2006; Kazakhstan is now implementing a programme for developing the power sector for up to 2015]

The programme [for developing the power sector for up to 2015] is aimed at constructing new power stations that should appear in all the regions of the country in seven years. According to information from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, a total of 1.8 trillion tenge or 14.4bn dollars are needed to construct them. Taking into account such a great sum, the projects will be implemented within the framework of state-private business partnership.

Great hopes are pinned on the construction of the Bulak hydropower station in the east of the country, which will be the regulator of the Shulba power station. In all, 165m tenge [about 1.3m dollars] were allocated from the republican budget last year to carry out the feasibility study of the project.

The capacity of a new station in the west of the country will be one fifth the capacity of its eastern “colleague”. The Kandyagash gas turbine power station’s capacity will be 100 megawatt. Since the project’s paper work is nearing completion, the construction of the power station is planned to start at the end of this year.

The Moynak hydropower station is designed to provide regulated supplies of electricity to the southern energy zone of the country. The power station, with its capacity of 300 megawatt, is planned to be built by 2011.

[Passage omitted: a Chinese bank will grant a loan of 200m dollars to implement the second stage of the project]

Construction of the Balkhash thermal power station with the capacity of 2,640 megawatt will be carried out in keeping with the following schedule: the first and second units of the power station will be commissioned in 2013 and the third and fourth units in 2016.

[Passage omitted: the power station will supply electricity to southern Zhambyl, South Kazakhstan and Kyzylorda regions as well as to Almaty]

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources reports that the construction of the second power transmission line of the North- South of Kazakhstan project will be completed as soon as the third quarter of next year. Its implementation started back in 2004.

The construction of the interregional power transmission line North Kazakhstan-Aktyubinsk Region will ensure switching of Aktyubinsk Region’s electricity networks to the unified electricity system of the country.

In the north of the country, it is planned to launch a major project for restoring three defunct power units with the capacity of 500 megawatt each at Ekibastuz GRES-1. From 600m to 1.5bn dollars are needed to resume the work of the three power units with their total capacity of 1,500 megawatts, which belong to a US company.

[Passage omitted: Ekibastuz GRES-2 plans to build the third power unit by 2013; the project costs 562.6m dollars; the author says that southern regions of Kazakhstan are now experiencing some shortages of electricity]

Originally published by Novoye Pokoleniye, Almaty, in Russian 29 Aug 08 p 5.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Central Asia. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.