Kazakhstan, Astana, 11 April / Trend D. Mukhtar /
Energy efficiency should become the main trend of Kazakhstan's Energy Strategy being developed by our association, the chairman of the KAZENERGY Association Timur Kulibayev said at a meeting with representatives of national companies, interested ministries and foreign experts.
"Energy efficiency is the main and primary trend in the development of the national energy strategy. The goals for 2020 should be defined clearly. Achievement of a 30 per cent reduction of energy consumption in the country by increasing energy efficiency which is an achievable figure," Kulibayev said.
He reminded the audience that 80 per cent of electricity is generated from coal in Kazakhstan.
"First of all we need to focus on the development of energy efficiency at coal power plants. And after upgrading the existing facilities based on coal, only then can we switch to the modernisation of gas generation. After all these prerequisites can we begin to switch to the development of renewable energy sources," he said.
According to the Minister of Environmental Protection, Nurlan Kapparov, who was at the meeting, introducing energy efficiency needs "more aggressive steps."
"Energy efficiency is something laying on the surface in a literal sense. 30 per cent is quite acceptable and real potential for reducing electric power consumption in the country," Kapparov said.
This means that according to his calculations, with the current volume of economy, the country could consume 70 billion kWh of electric power instead of 100 billion per year.
"That is, in other words, before building new power plants, we must use the full potential of existing ones using energy efficiency," he added.
According to Kulibayev, the second important step is ensuring energy efficiency be the result of modernisation of all baseline networks in the country which must also link the power generating centre of the country with the energy deficient western region.
"Then we will have a full domestic supply. The networks are looped which will help to sustain peak loads during consumption," the head of KAZENERGY said.
He recalled the government has adopted a state programme on construction of new plants which will meet the growing demand for electricity.
"Our energy system should be able to meet the growing demand and this will be reflected in the energy strategy being developed," Kulibayev said.
He also said that the third main direction of the document will be the development of renewable energy sources (RES).
"All the planned projects on renewable energy will be implemented, but now we need to gain experience. When the cost of electricity from renewable energy sources is comparable to the cost of conventional energy sources, then we will broadly develop RES. And we have set an ambitious goal to bring their share up to 10 per cent in 2030, "Kulibayev said.