ASTANA, Kazakhstan, March 6. Kazakhstan plans to cover the electricity deficit in the upcoming autumn-winter period through imports from Russia, said Chairman of the Board of KEGOC JSC (Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company) Nabi Aitzhanov at an extended meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Energy, Trend reports.
"With a forecast load of 17.4 GW and station generation of 16.4 GW, the deficit will be around 1.025 GW in the forthcoming autumn-winter period from October 2024 through March 2025, which can be met mostly by Russian imports or limitations on Kazakhstan users. As you know, the most energy-deficient zone is the south of the country," he said.
As he noted, to fully cover the needs of the southern region and prevent the introduction of restrictions, it is necessary to operate the Jambyl State District Power Plant in a 5-block mode.
In addition, according to Aitzhanov, electricity consumption in 2023 amounted to 115.06 billion kWh and increased by 1.9 percent compared to 2022. At the same time, electricity generation remained at the 2022 level and amounted to 112.82 billion kWh. With an increase in load in 2023, there will be a decrease in the generation of power plants in Kazakhstan.
'With these consumption and generation figures, the deficit in electrical power was 1,519 MW, which was covered by imports from Russia," he noted.
Meanwhile, in 2022, Kazakhstan produced 112.8 billion kWh of electricity. Exports amounted to 2.2 billion kWh (an increase of 16.1 percent). The main buyers were: Russia: 1.5 billion kWh (an increase of 16.6 percent); Kyrgyzstan: 690 million kWh (an increase of 15.1 percent).
In turn, Kazakhstan bought 1.7 times more electricity than a year earlier—3.7 billion kWh. Most of it was imported from Russia: 1.9 billion kWh (an increase of 8.4 percent), and Kyrgyzstan supplied 1.7 billion kWh (an increase of 5.6 times).
