“According to the agreement, the parties will annually agree on the volumes of electrical energy planned for transmission from the Russian Federation through the unified energy system of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Payment for transmission services will be made at the tariff established by the authorized body in the field of state regulation of tariffs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which shall not exceed the tariff for the transmission of electrical energy for domestic consumers of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” the chamber concluded regarding the bill.
The Minister of Energy, Almasadam Satkaliev, who presented the document at the chamber meeting, reminded that Kazakhstan's energy system operates in parallel with the energy system of Russia. According to him, the main goal of the agreement project on ensuring the parallel operation of energy systems is to formalize the relationships between the parties that arise during the parallel operation and to define the main conditions under which this interaction takes place.
“Due to the observed deficit of regulating capacities in the unified energy system of Kazakhstan in recent years, as well as emergency and unscheduled repairs at power plants, the hourly deviations of the actual interstate balance of flows at the border with the unified energy system of Russia significantly exceeded the agreed permissible volumes of +/- 150 MW. In certain hours, the power deviations reached up to 1500 MW. Given the systematic exceedance of the permissible values of electrical power flows between the energy systems of Kazakhstan and Russia, on November 15, 2021, the Russian side initiated a question to update the existing agreement at that time between the government of the Russian Federation and the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated November 20, 2009,” said the minister.
As a result of complex negotiations, specialists from both countries managed to reach a consensus on all contentious issues of the protocol project to amend the 2009 agreement.
“As a result of prolonged negotiations, an agreement was reached not to apply an increase in the cost of deviations within the permissible range, and updated conditions were provided under which the purchase and sale of electricity is carried out to compensate for deviations between JSC ‘KEGOC’ and PJSC ‘Inter RAO’. This includes the application of a profitability norm (for deviations exceeding the permissible range of 150 MW - “Kursiv”) of 2.5% only beyond the permissible range of deviations. It is worth noting that initially the Russian side demanded an increase in the profitability norm to 7–15% in line with internal consumers of the unified energy system of Russia, which the Kazakh side did not agree to,” said Satkaliev.
During the discussions, an agreement was reached to apply a profitability norm of 0.5% in the agreed range and 2.5% beyond this range in contracts for the purchase and sale of electricity to compensate for deviations.
“Following prolonged negotiations, the profitability norm of ‘Inter RAO’ was reduced from 15% to 5%, and through the insistence of the Kazakh side to maintain the profitability norm, the level was reduced to 2.5%. Ultimately, the average hourly value of the permissible deviation of the actual balance of flows from the dispatcher schedule was set at +/-150 MW, within which power is not paid for, and electricity transmission services through the networks of PJSC ‘Rosseti’ are provided, with the purchase and sale of electricity conducted at an equivalent price,” the minister reported.
He explained that payment for electricity beyond the permissible range (over 150 MW) of deviations includes the payment for capacity, transmission services through the networks of ‘Rosseti’ and ‘SO UPS’ for operational dispatch management, and the purchase of electricity at the prices of the balancing market of the Russian Federation, which is formed on an hourly basis.
The purchase of electricity to cover the planned consumption volume not met by Kazakh energy-producing organizations will occur on a commercial basis – through a contract between the Ministry of Energy’s subordinate ‘Financial Settlement Center for Supporting Renewable Energy Sources’ and the Russian ‘Inter RAO’. Kazakhstan has traditionally imported the missing volumes of electricity from Russia; however, amid the rise of digital miners in the republic, the electricity deficit at times exceeded 1,000 MW, placing a significant strain on the energy system.
It is noteworthy that, according to data from the company ‘KOREM’, this year Kazakhstan's energy system is still experiencing a surplus of electricity. Specifically, from January 1 to 28, the total electricity generation in Kazakhstan amounted to 10.404 billion kWh, while consumption was 10.316 billion kWh. Thus, in the coldest month of the year, the system observed a consistent surplus of electricity. Even on the coldest days, when temperatures in northern Kazakhstan dropped below -30°C at night, there was practically no electricity deficit. For example, on January 22, electricity production reached 373.03 million kWh with consumption at 373.05 million kWh, and on January 23 – 388.08 million kWh and 381.52 million kWh, respectively.
The government explained the electricity deficit not only as a necessity for importing electricity but also as a reason for constructing the first nuclear power plant (NPP). At the same time, the government is now discussing the possibility of simultaneously building two initial NPPs in Kazakhstan. Initially, the plan was to launch one NPP with two blocks totaling 2.4 GW by 2035, which would be located in the village of Ulken in the Almaty region – on the shores of Lake Balkhash. The second site being considered is the city of Kurchatov in eastern Kazakhstan. Another site previously considered was the city of Aktau, where a nuclear reactor operated for several decades until the 1990s.