ASTANA – The Kazakhstan government is working to halve the energy-consumption share in the GDP by 2050 by focusing on energy efficiency in three key sectors of the economy: industry, transportation and utilities.
According to the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies analysis, industry is the most energy-intensive area where power consumption is more than 70 percent. The study indicates industrial production is extremely costly in terms of energy consumption, especially compared to foreign analogues.
More than 35 percent of the electric power generated in Kazakhstan is consumed by 15 major industrial enterprises, including the Aksu Ferroalloy plant, ArcelorMittal Temirtau and Kazakhstan Aluminium Smelter. Meanwhile, the energy audit has found that most of them have a significant potential for energy savings. In the Aksu Ferroalloy Plant, for one, experts estimate the possible savings at about 48 percent, or 2,719 million kW/h of electricity, a sum of nearly 160 billion tenge (US $871,887,308). The Petropavlovsk heavy machine building plant has as big a potential for energy saving too.
Based on these assessments, an annual savings of primary energy resources of 7.8 million tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE) is envisioned in industry and around 0.9 million TOE in utilities and the public sector.
According to Vice-Minister of Industry and New Technologies Albert Rau, the basic legal and institutional mechanisms of energy conservation were established in Kazakhstan in the last four years. In 2012, a new law on energy saving and energy efficiency and 22 related normative legal acts were adopted. A comprehensive plan to improve energy efficiency is being implemented, supported by 16 regional and five sectoral comprehensive plans for energy conservation. On the target programme of Samruk Kazyna Welfare Fund and its subsidiaries, a rise of their energy efficiency by 25 percent is slated until 2020.
A certain effect is already tangible in the government measures for reducing the energy intensity of the economy.
“The energy intensity of the GDP has already decreased by 13.5 percent compared to the year 2008. The consumption of primary fuel and energy resources amounted to 6 percent,” Rau said.
The state energy registry of major energy consumers of the country was made in 2013, which includes about 11,802 entities for which appropriate requirements for energy efficiency are set.
A market of energy auditors is currently in the making in Kazakhstan and investments will be contributed in energy saving in the energy-intensive sectors with more investment in modernisation and application of energy efficient technologies. Nurturing the culture of energy efficiency will be focused on as well.
Demonstration centres of energy efficiency and 14 training centres are open in Almaty, Astana and Aktobe.
