Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, Sept. 26 /Trend A.Maratov/
Three largest power stations in the north of Kazakhstan will reach the designed capacity following their modernization by 2016-2017, Bakytzhan Sagintayev, the governor of Pavlodar region said in an interview with Trend.
"The construction of the third block has started at Ekibastuz HPP - 2, while the upgrade of idle blocks is underway at Ekibastuz HPP - 1," Sagintayev said. "The Aksu Station is also being upgraded. They will reach the designed capacity by 2016-2017."
Ekibastuz HPP-1 is the large thermal power plant in the northern Kazakhstan. The designed capacity the plant is 4,000 MW and the operating capacity is about 2,500 MW.
Ekibastuz HPP-2 is the second largest thermal power plant in the country. The construction of the plant began in 1979.
The plant is designed to provide the north of Kazakhstan with energy. The consumers are the enterprises in Kazakhstan as well as in Russia.
Currently the plant is the Kazakh-Russian joint venture with two power units. It is able to produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
Preparatory work to build the third block with the capacity of 500 MW commenced in mid-2009. The estimated cost of construction work is more than 68 billion tenge and will take four - five years to complete.
Edited by: A.Badalova