Kazakhstan saw growth in electricity consumption
Between January and November 2019, electricity production in Kazakhstan amounted to 96.7 billion kWh, decreasing by 0.4% within the year. For the same period last year, production amounted to 97 billion kWh, with an increase of 4.4%, Energyprom.kz informs.
In monetary terms, the production, transmission and distribution of electricity for January – November of the current year amounted to 1.4 trillion tenge, the industrial production index versus the corresponding period of the previous year - 101.9%. In general, in 2018, the country's electricity production reached 107.3 billion kWh, which is 4% more than in the previous year.
According to the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan, 138 electric power plants (including renewable energy facilities) of various ownership forms produce electricity in the country, most of them private. The total installed capacity of Kazakhstan's power plants is 21,673 MW.
By type of energy used, the stations are divided as follows:
• coal - 69.7%;
• gas - 20.0%;
• hydroelectric power plants (excluding small hydropower plants) - 9.0%;
• renewable sources (including small hydroelectric power stations) - 1.3%.
Over the past five years, the available capacity of power plants has increased by 2,470 MW, or 15% from the level of 2013, mainly due to an increase in the capacity of thermal plants and renewable energy sources. The average age of the equipment of power plants in Kazakhstan at the end of 2018 was 32 years. The capacity of the oldest equipment introduced more than 70 years ago is 118 MW (0.54% of the total installed capacity of power plants).
The largest volume of electricity production falls on industrial Pavlodar region: 39.3 billion kWh, which is 40.6% of the total volume in the country.
It followed by Karaganda (14 billion kWh) and Eastern Kazakhstan (8.9 billion kWh) regions. The TOP-5 regions for electricity production also included Atyrau (5.5 billion kWh) and Mangystau (4.7 billion kWh) regions.
The above five regions consolidate 74.8% of the country's electricity production.
According to KOREM, electric energy consumption for January – November 2019 amounted to 94.8 billion kWh, an increase of 1.9% compared with the corresponding period last year (93 billion kWh).
The maximum volume of electric energy consumption is observed in Pavlodar (17.5 billion kWh), Karaganda (16.3 billion kWh) and Almaty (10.1 billion kWh) regions.
According to experts, consumption in Kazakhstan will continue to show steady growth. Electricity consumption against the backdrop of the development of the Kazakhstani economy will increase by 2030 to 136 billion kWh, by 2050 - to 172 billion kWh.
The growing demand for electricity and decommissioning due to the depreciation of old power plants in Kazakhstan will require significant construction of new capacities: 11–12 GW by 2030 (which corresponds to approximately 60% of installed capacity for 2012) and 32–36 GW by 2050, not including installed capacity of renewable energy facilities.
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