BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Kazakhstan is set to introduce a single-buyer electric market starting from July 1, said Kazakhstan's Vice Minister of Energy, Zhandos Nurmaganbetov during a briefing at the Central Communications Service, Trend reports.
The implementation of this centralized buying and selling model aims to address several pressing issues, ensuring the country's energy security and promoting reforms within the electric power industry.
The introduction of a single-buyer electric market takes into account the current situation in the sector, including planned imbalances in the system, projected electricity shortages, unequal competition due to varying tariff rates among energy producers, and plans for constructing new generation sources, including renewable energy.
The proposed model of a single-buyer electric market is expected to bring several benefits, including the elimination of speculative operations in electricity trading, reduction of unproductive intermediaries, minimization of discrepancies in interstate electricity flows by transitioning from technical schedules based on power plant capabilities to actual consumer demand schedules and achieving a balance between high tariffs for newly introduced generation sources, import prices during shortages, and current tariffs of existing power stations. Furthermore, it aims to equalize electricity tariffs among regions in the long run.