BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.2
Trend:
Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry plans to work out new approaches to development of peaceful nuclear and hydrogen energy, the ministry’s head Nurlan Nogayev said, Trend reports.
Nogayev made the remark during the government’s meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin, at which measures to implement the Address of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to the Kazakh people dated September 1, 2021 were considered.
At the meeting the energy minister spoke of the main directions regarding the upcoming work on the execution of the president’s instructions on the energy sector.
According to him, given the growing consumption of electricity and the share of alternative and renewable energy in the country's energy balance, the development of flexible capacities is a prerequisite for ensuring the energy security of Kazakhstan.
"In this regard, the ministry, as part of the implementation of the mechanism for the construction of generating plants with a flexible generation mode, has published a schedule of the auctions for December 2021 at sites in the Turkestan region and the cities of Kyzylorda and Almaty," Nogayev noted.
At the same time, according to the minister, in order to improve the ecology of the city of Almaty, Samruk-Kazyna NWF JSC will implement a project to transfer the Almaty CHPP-2 to gas supply by the construction of a combined cycle plant up to 600 MW within the capacity market, as well as to modernize Almaty CHPP-1 by the construction of a combined cycle plant up to 250 MW.
Based on the results of the implementation of the above projects, by 2026 in the south of the country it’s expected to commission about 2,300 MW of capacity with a total investment of more than 1.2 trillion tenge ($2.8 billion).
The minister further said that the existing gas infrastructure of the southern regions won’t provide future projects with the required amount of fuel.
“For the successful implementation of the projects announced by the president, Samruk-Kazyna NWF JSC, together with Kaztransgaz JSC, should start working on the issue of building additional infrastructure to provide gas to the economy and the needs of the population of southern regions, as well as to implement energy projects,” Nogayev added.
Besides, within the execution of the president’s instructions, the ministry, together with the Samruk-Kazyna company, is starting to study issues related to the development of a peaceful nuclear energy.
In the field of training qualified personnel in the nuclear sector, the ministry, together with interested state bodies and organizations, plans to carry out work on the allocation of grants and scholarships for training students in the world's leading universities in the nuclear industry.
For the aim to develop hydrogen energy in the country, the ministry will determine the main development approaches.