Tag Archives: electricity

Kazatomprom sells solar power business

DEC. 30 2020 (The Bulletin) — Kazatomprom, the world’s largest uranium miner, said that it wanted to sell its three solar power subsidiaries — KazSilicon, Astana Solar and Kazakhstan Solar Silicon. The three companies had produced parts and materials for solar panels. Kazatomprom, which mines 25% of the world’s uranium, said that it wanted to concentrate on its core business.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kazatomprom sells stake in subsidiary to China

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ALMATY/DEC. 29 2020 (The Bulletin) — — Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom, the world’s biggest uranium miner, agreed to sell China’s CGN a 49% stake in one of its most important subsidiaries as part of a contract to boost bilateral cooperation in the sector.

Under the deal, signed between 2014 and 2016, China will commit to funding the construction of a nuclear fuel assembly plant in Kazakhstan and will guarantee orders for these fuel assemblies for the next 20 years.

Kazatomprom said that the coronavirus pandemic had slowed construction of the Ulba Fuel Assembly Plant in the east of the country but that the project was now back on track.

“Under the current ramp-up and product qualification plan, and assuming no further delays, the first production from the Ulba-FA plant is expected near the end of 2021, with first delivery of finished, certified fuel assemblies to the customer in 2022,” Kazatomprom said in a statement.

China is the world’s biggest growth market for nuclear power and a natural marketplace for Kazatomprom’s uranium. Fuel assemblies are enriched uranium rods grouped together to generate power for power stations.

The deal highlights the trade co-dependency of the two neighbours and also how China is continuing to increase its ownership of Kazakh industry.

China has been buying up many of Kazakhstan’s top industrial assets, especially in the oil and gas and the mineral and mining sectors, for the past 15 years or so.

The Kazatomprom subsidiary that CGN, which stands for China General Nuclear Power Group, has agreed to take a 49% in, as part of the fuel assembly supply deal, is called Ortalyk.

It owns two uranium deposits in Kazakhstan, the Central Mynkuduk Deposit and the Zhalpak Deposit. The deal is expected to be completed by the middle of 2021.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

EBRD and World Bank lend for Uzbek solar project

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DEC. 23 2020 (The Bulletin) — The EBRD, the ADB and the World Bank agreed to lend the Uzbek government $125m to finance its first solar power project. The plant is being built in Uzbekistan’s industrial heartland in Navoi by Masdar, an Abdu Dhabi company and will produce 270 gigawatt hours of energy per year, which Bloomberg said was enough to power 31,000 households.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Tajikistan is facing most serious drought ever, says deputy PM

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DEC. 22 2020 (The Bulletin) — Davlatali Said, Tajikistan’s deputy PM, said that the country was facing the most serious drought on record. The statement was an unusually candid one by a senior member of the Tajik government on the water shortages in Tajikistan’s reservoirs that have dented power generation at its hydropower stations. Tajikistan is trying to set itself up as a major regional power exporter.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Water shortage triggers concerns on Tajik power generation

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DUSHANBE/JULY 28 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s national energy company Barqi Tojik said that a shortage of water in its reservoirs had reduced its electricity generation capacity and forced it to cut its power exports.

Water shortages and electricity cuts are a concern for Tajikistan as power is one of its main exports. The headline Rogun dam, the biggest hydroelectric dam in the world, is due for completion by 2028 and has been earmarked to boost Tajikistan’s power exports but, without sufficient water, it could become a white elephant.

In a live TV address, a government official from the ministry of power said that water levels in the Vakhsh and Panj rivers were lower than at any time since records began.

“Today, the Nurek reservoir has 17m less water in it than last year,” he said. “If this situation continues, the reservoir will be severely depleted, and in winter there will be serious problems in providing electricity to the population and the national economy.”

The Nurek reservoir is situated about 40km from Dushanbe, slightly lower down the same river system as Rogun. This means that if there is a shortage of water for Nurek, there will be a shortage of water for Rogun.

The government blamed global warming for the water shortages.

“The process of climate change and global warming is going on rapidly on the planet, and its impact, especially this year on Tajikistan, has intensified,” the spokesman said.

The immediate concern, though, is that Tajikistan doesn’t have enough water in its reservoirs to power its electricity generating capacity. Tajikistan, Central Asia’s poorest country, has already cut electricity transmission levels to Uzbekistan and analysts are worried that it won’t be able to meet its obligations for the World Bank-backed CASA-1000 project.

By 2023, CASA-1000 should be operating a network of electricity transmission masts that will carry power generated in Tajik and Kyrgyz hydro systems, across Afghanistan into Pakistan. The West sees it as a win-win-win. Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan earn much-needed cash, Pakistan buys up much-needed power and the West earn kudos.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

COMMENT: Kazakh government on defensive after activist dies

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>> Concessions are likely from the Kazakh government as it works hard to contain the fallout from the death in police custody of an opposition activist, writes James Kilner.

MARCH 3 2020 (The Bulletin) — As The Bulletin was going to press, a court in the northeastern Kazakh city of Semey ordered the release of Mukhtar Dzhakishev, perhaps the country’s most high-profile political prisoner.

Dzhakishev has been in prison since 2009, sent down because of various financial crimes. He had been a high flyer within the Kazakh elite, at the time of his arrest he was head of the nuclear agency Kazatomptom, although the government of Nursultan Nazarbayev always doubted his loyalty.

Many people, including foreign governments, suspected that the real reason that Dzhakishev had been imprisoned was because he was close to Mukhtar Ablyazov, the billionaire owner of BTA Bank who fled to Moscow and then London in 2009 and set himself up as an opposition leader.

The theory goes that Nazarbayev couldn’t get to Ablyazov, and still hasn’t, but he could take out some of his key Kazakhstan-based associates, including Dzhakishev.

So why release Dzhakishev now? Afterall, Ablyazov is still acting as an opposition leader from his base in Paris and only last year a court rejected Dzhakishev’s appeal for his early release on health grounds.

The answer could well lie with the death in police custody of opposition activist Dulat Agadil. In life, Agadil had not been a particularly serious threat to the government but in death, he had become a powerful force for the government’s opponents to rally around. He died in police custody on Feb. 25 in murky circumstances. The government was quick to rush out a statement saying that Agadil had died of an underlying heart condition and not from police mistreatment. Not many ordinary people believe the government and the opposition had been quick to start organising demonstrations. The one on Saturday was snuffed out by the security forces but more were promised.

Perhaps the release of Dzhakishev was a carrot that Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev believed was needed to pacify opposition momentum. It has allowed him to show himself as a moderate and even-handed president.

It may also only be the beginning of the concessions that the Kazakh government is prepared to give out to contain the fallout from the death of Agadil. Whether it works or not, The Bulletin will be there to report and analyse in full.

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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Georgian Capital buys up renewable energy

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TBILISI/Feb. 27 2020 (The Bulletin) — — Georgian Capital, the conglomerate that owns most of Georgia Healthcare, schools around Tbilisi, a property development company and a beer producer, said that it had returned to profit in 2019 after reporting a loss in 2018. The London-listed company also said that it was buying the 34% of Georgian Renewable Power Company that it didn’t already own from RP Global for $13.8m. This may rise by up to $4.5m if electricity price rise in 2023-5.

The Georgian Renewable Power Company owns wind farms and hydropower stations.

Georgia Capital chairman and CEO Irakli Gilauri said of the deal: “The minority acquisition gives us greater flexibility to execute our planned growth strategy to become a key player in the fast-growing Georgian electricity market.” Georgia has been emphasising green power.

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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kazakhstan completes deal to buy power station from Russia

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DEC. 12 2019 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s national wealth fund, Samruk Kazyna, completed a $25m deal to buy a 50% stake in the Ekibastuz power station-2, the largest power plant in the north of the country, that it didn’t already own from Russia’s Inter RAO. The coal-fired power station reportedly produces around 12% of Kazakhstan’s total power.
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— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019

Second batch of low-enriched uranium arrives at IAEA site in Kazakhstan

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DEC. 10 2019 (The Bulletin) — A purpose-built storage facility managed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in eastern Kazakhstan received its second and final consignment of low-enriched uranium (LEU). The site in Ust-Kamenogorsk was set up to allow countries developing nuclear power to buy fuel for their power stations safely.

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— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019

UAE’s Masdar signs deal to build solar farm in Armenia

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DEC. 3 (The Bulletin) — Masdar, the UAE-based renewable energy company, signed a deal with the Armenian government to build a solar farm in the west of the country with a power generation capacity of 400MW. Masdar has been winning renewable energy projects across the region.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019