Kazakhstan plans to develop new approaches to development of atomic and hydrogen energy — Nurlan Nogayev

At the government session chaired by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin, the measures to implement the Address of the Head of State to the people of Kazakhstan dated Sep. 1, 2021, were considered. Minister of Energy Nurlan Nogayev reported on the main directions of the upcoming work on the execution of orders in the energy sector.

According to the minister, given the growing consumption of electricity and the share of alternative and renewable energy in the country's energy balance, the development of flexible capacities is a prerequisite for ensuring the energy security of Kazakhstan.

"In this regard, the ministry, as part of the implementation of the mechanism for the construction of generating plants with a flexible generation mode, has published a schedule for the auction for December 2021 at sites in the Turkistan region and the cities of Kyzylorda, Almaty," Nogayev noted.

At the same time, as the minister noted further, within the framework of improving the ecology of the city of Almaty, Samruk-Kazyna SWF JSC will implement a project to convert the Almaty CHPP-2 to gas with the construction of a combined cycle plant up to 600 MW within the capacity market, as well as to modernize Almaty CHPP-1 with the construction of a combined cycle plant up to 250 MW.

As a result of the implementation of the above projects, by 2026 in the south of the country it is expected to commission about 2,300 MW of capacity with a total investment of more than 1.2 trillion tenge.

At the same time, according to the minister, the existing gas infrastructure of the southern regions will not provide future projects with the required amount of fuel.

“For the successful implementation of the projects announced by the Head of State, SWF Samruk-Kazyna JSC, together with Kaztransgaz JSC, should start working on the issue of building additional infrastructure to provide gas to the economy and the needs of the population of southern regions, as well as to implement energy projects,” Nogayev said.

Development of renewable energy sources among the priorities

In recent years, the Government has taken significant steps to improve the investment climate in the RES sector, taking into account global practices, as well as through active government policy aimed at taking systemic measures for the development of RES.

“Currently, there are 123 renewable energy facilities in the republic with an installed capacity of 1,898 MW. By 2025, the total number of renewable energy facilities will be about 182, with an installed capacity of 4,400 MW, which will ensure the fulfillment of the planned target indicator of 6% of the share of renewable energy sources,” Nogayev noted.

As part of the implementation of these projects, according to the minister, about 1 trillion tenge of investments will be attracted, an additional 6 billion kWh of green energy will be generated, and 20,000 temporary and 1,000 permanent jobs will be created.

To achieve the goal of increasing the share of RES by 2 times compared to 2020, the Ministry will carry out the following work:

  • an annual auction for the selection of RES projects;
  • introduction of technical requirements for the participants of the renewable energy market;
  • execution of the HPP development plan;
  • work on large projects (1-2 GW);
  • improvement of the mechanism of small-scale RES among the population and SMEs.

In the gas industry, it is planned to implement 3 projects.

One of the projects, according to the minister, is the construction of a gas processing plant at the Kashagan field with a processing capacity of 1 billion cubic meters of raw gas per year. Construction and installation work is currently underway at the site. The implementation of the project, according to the minister, will make it possible to additionally produce about 8-10 million tons of oil in the period until 2041, as well as produce up to 800 million m3 of marketable gas per year.

“In general, the calculations show a high economic efficiency of the construction of the gas processing plant, both for Kazakhstan and for the contracting companies of the Kashagan field,” Nogayev noted.

Today the main gas pipelines Makat - North Caucasus and Okarem-Beineu provide gas supply to consumers in Western Kazakhstan.

“But these gas pipelines were built in the Soviet era in a single-line design, have worked out their assigned resource, and have many critical defects based on the results of diagnostic examinations,” Nogayev noted.

In this regard, he said, in order to ensure energy security and transport additional volumes of gas for the growing demand of the regions, it is planned to build a looping line for the Makat-North Caucasus gas pipeline and the second line of Beineu-Zhanaozen.

Currently, design estimates have been developed for all 3 gas projects and the practical part of the implementation is underway, including those related to the financing of the above projects.

Ministry plans to find new approaches to the development of peaceful nuclear energy and hydrogen energy.

Also, as part of the execution of the order of the Head of State, the ministry, together with SWF Samruk-Kazyna JSC, is starting to study issues related to the development of peaceful nuclear energy.

In the field of training qualified personnel in the nuclear sector, the Ministry, together with interested state bodies and organizations, plans to carry out work on the allocation of grants and scholarships for training students in leading world universities in the nuclear industry.

In order to develop hydrogen energy in the country, the Ministry of Energy will determine the main development approaches.

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