The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Olzhas Bektenov, and the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Alexander Novak, discussed current issues regarding Kazakhstan-Russia cooperation in the energy, oil, gas, and infrastructure sectors, as reported by Primeminister.kz.
Both parties expressed their readiness to jointly implement promising projects. In particular, they discussed the construction of heat and power plants in Kokshetau, Semey, and Ust-Kamenogorsk, the modernization of the 3rd and 4th units of the Ekibastuz GRES-2, and other significant areas of collaboration.
It is noteworthy that Kazakhstan plans to construct three heat and power plants based on coal generation.
“The implementation of these projects faces some challenges, given the refusal of international financial institutions to participate in the establishment of coal generation. Currently, in accordance with the agreements reached, the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan plans to sign a memorandum with Russian partners represented by ‘Inter RAO - Export’ to carry out the aforementioned projects,” the Ministry of Energy reported. The project for the construction of a heat and power plant in Kokshetau includes the installation of multi-fuel pulverized coal boilers with the capability to switch to natural gas. The Ministry of Energy explained that previous attempts to implement the construction of a heat and power plant in Kokshetau through a tender to attract private investors had been made. However, the tenders were deemed unsuccessful due to a lack of applications. The project for the “Construction of HPP-3 in Semey” is currently at the stage of developing a feasibility study. It is expected that HPP-2 in Ust-Kamenogorsk will operate on solid fuel and will be built in the left bank area of the city.
It was reported that the construction of these heat and power plants could be implemented through a preferential financing mechanism for Kazakhstan via a Russian state export credit.