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On May 30, 2023, Vice Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhandos Nurmaganbetov at a press conference in the Central Communications Service spoke about the technical condition of the country's power plants and the measures taken to restore them, the press service of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan reports.
Recall that as part of the instruction of the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, from December 2022 to March 2023, a team of international experts led by KPMG, with the support of the World Bank, began work on conducting an extensive technical audit of Kazakhstan's power plants.
A total of 55 power stations were surveyed. Special attention was paid to the technical condition of the main and auxiliary equipment of thermal power plants and the conditions of its operation, - said the Vice Minister of Energy.
According to the results of the survey, all stations were divided into categories depending on the technical condition of the equipment, service life, indicators of specific fuel consumption, accident rate, staffing and repair work.
According to Sandeep Kohli, a senior energy specialist at the World Bank, Kazakhstan's energy sector can be transformed into a more sustainable, reliable, clean and modern energy system through large-scale auctions of renewable energy sources and a fair transition to replace stations classified as «red category».
By the end of June, a detailed action plan for each station will be prepared, indicating short- and long-term measures for further operation and maintenance.
Also during the briefing, Zhandos Nurmaganbetov said that the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan has started implementing the updated program «Tariff in exchange for investment», the main purpose of which is to reduce the level of depreciation by at least 15% by increasing the investment attractiveness of the generation sector.
According to him, an important part of the updated program is the strengthening of existing support mechanisms and reciprocal obligations on the part of enterprises.
So, to date, according to the submitted applications, the Ministry has adjusted the marginal tariffs for electric energy for 27 out of 47 energy-producing organizations, the average increase in tariffs of which will be about 24 %.
At the same time, relevant amendments have been made to the legislation to increase the investment return limit to 428 billion tenge, which will increase the pool of projects for modernization and expansion and reconstruction of existing stations. Priority will be given to the stations with the highest level of wear, taking into account the results of the technical audit and the developed action plan.
Work is also underway to increase the marginal tariff for the provision of services to maintain readiness to carry electric power from 590 thousand tenge to more than 1.5 million tenge per MW per month. This measure will ensure the inflow of funds at the stage of project implementation (including chimneys and ash dumps).
In turn, counter obligations will be introduced for energy enterprises to invest part of their own funds, in addition to those received from tariffs, for the development of their own assets.
For the full implementation of the proposed measures, it is necessary to return the control functions of the authorized body for the targeted use of funds received under the «tariff in exchange for investment» policy, as well as to establish indicators that need to be achieved within the framework of the investments,- the Vice Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan stressed.