ASTANA – Some electricity users in Kazakhstan might be shocked to learn that domestic electric power prices have recently increased.
As of March, Kazakh citizens using electric stoves pay 1,216 tenge, 1,566 tenge and 1,903 tenge for 100 kilowatts per hour for consumption levels one, two and three respectively. Tariffs are differentiated into three levels according to the quantity consumed and geographical location. There are also discounts provided for the pensioners, people with disabilities and World War II veterans, according to a report from energyprom.kz..
The price for the first consumption level has gone up 6.2 percent since January and 15.4 percent over the year. In comparison, prices for second and third levels, however, have not grown considerably. The prices have increased 4.8 percent and 1.9 percent since March 2017.
Electricity prices for people not using electric stoves have increased 10.1, 3.9 and 1.3 percent and prices are 1,237 tenge (US$3.74), 1,563 tenge (US$4.73) and 1,904 tenge (US$5.76) for levels one, two and three.
In the first two months of 2018, electricity production increased in monetary terms 13.3 percent growing to 223 billion tenge (US$675 million) and in real terms 11.1 percent to 19.8 billion kilowatts per hour.
The highest quantity of electricity, 8,515 billion kilowatts per hour, was produced in the Pavlodar region, which grew up almost 23 percent over the year. The increase can be explained by exports and growing domestic demand.
Overall, electricity production is following an upward trend, increasing from 94.5 billion kilowatts per hour in 2016 to 103.1 billion kilowatts per hour in 2017, whereas imports remained the same at 1.3 billion over the period. Electricity exports more than doubled from 2.3 billion to 5.7 billion kilowatts per hour.
