Photo: Brett Sayles / Pexels
Kazakhstan will revise its power supply and demand balance through 2035 to account for consumption by data centres and artificial intelligence projects (inbusiness.kz). The government has instructed planners to factor their additional demand into power system planning. The Energy Ministry must also track deadlines for bringing new power plants online and upgrading existing ones.
What happened
The instructions came at a meeting on the development of the fuel and energy sector chaired by First Deputy Prime Minister Nurlybek Nalibayev. The Energy Ministry must closely oversee the construction of new generating capacity and upgrades to existing plants. The government paid particular attention to major coal projects.
These include Ekibastuz GRES-3 and a power plant in Kurchatov. New combined heat and power plants, which produce both electricity and heat, are also planned. In total, the country plans to bring more than 26 GW of new capacity online by 2035.
What this means
The government has required the revised balance to account for the additional load from digital projects. Power system planning will factor in consumption by data centres, also known as DCs. For more on this, read our article on how AI is changing Kazakhstan’s energy consumption.
KEGOC forecasts that spare capacity, after allowing for the required reserve, could reach around 2.8 GW from 2029. By 2035, it could rise to roughly 5 GW, even with large data centres included. One detail matters here: the calculation depends on power plants being built and infrastructure being upgraded on time.
Where capacity is being planned for digital projects
Plans are being explored for a “Data Centre Valley” near Ekibastuz GRES-1 in Ekibastuz. A site of around 200 hectares has been identified, with room to expand to more than 1,300 hectares. raem.kz previously reported on plans to launch a data centre in Ekibastuz.
Future sources of electricity include the 2,640 MW Ekibastuz GRES-3 and a plant in Kurchatov with around 700 MW of capacity. The new combined heat and power plant in Kokshetau will have a capacity of 240 MW. Plants in Semey and Ust-Kamenogorsk are each planned to have 360 MW.
When the new generating units will come online
The government expects to use modern flue gas cleaning systems in the new coal projects. These should reduce emissions and improve plant efficiency.
Meanwhile, plans at Ekibastuz GRES-2 call for a third and fourth generating unit, each with a capacity of 550 MW. The third unit is scheduled to come online no later than 2028, and the fourth no later than 2030.
