Kairat Maksutov, the chairman of state-owned utility Samruk Energy, said at a government briefing on October 28 that gas turbines are being readied at Almaty’s CHP-2 and CHP-3, the two main combined heat and power plants in Kazakhstan’s largest city.
According to Maksutov, the plants should become fully operational between September-December 2026, in time for the winter season.
The project, partially supported by the EBRD, was approved in 2022. But its implementation was delayed, leading Nurlan Zhakupov, the head of Samruk-Kazyna, the holding that owns Samruk Energy, to say in September 2024 that “any delays in the projects of CHP-2 and CHP-3 are unacceptable.”
At the end of last year, the ministry of energy said that the conversion of CHP-2 would cost 388 billion tenge ($721 million). The project is being carried out by a consortium of Chinese companies: Dongfang Electric, SEPCO1 Electric Power Construction Corporation, and Powerchina Hebei Electric Power Engineering.
“Three gas generation projects with a total capacity of 2.2 GW are currently being implemented,” Maksutov said today, disclosing the size of the future gas-fired capacity.
The CHP-2 has often been singled out as one of the main sources of air pollution in Almaty. In 2020, the ministry of ecology calculated that it accounted for about half of the emissions in the city. More recent data shows that the CHP-2 could be listed as a “super emitter,” ranking among the top 10% of PM 2.5 emitters worldwide.
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