Kazakhstan Reports Large Energy Intensity Cut
Kazakhstan’s energy conservation policy, implemented in 2013, has borne fruit, an official claimed September 5. The first vice-minister of investment and development, Alik Aidarbaev, said the amount of energy needed to produce a unit of gross domestic product had come down 28% since 2008 and a further cut is projected in future.
The country has implemented a policy to control the energy consumption, called Energy Saving 2020 Programme, especially in state and industrial sector to improve energy efficiency and modernise the economy.
It is not clear how the energy intensity has fallen since 2008 while the country’s GDP has not changed and primary energy demand has gone up significantly during the last nine years.
Kazakhstan’s GDP stood below $134bn in 2016, which is where it was in 2008, according to World Bank statistics. The country also consumed 63mn mt oil equivalent of primary energy during last year, 8mn mt more than 2008, BP estimated.
The oil and gas rich country’s GDP also fell by almost $103bn since 2013, (from $236.6bn) while its primary energy demand rose by 2.8mn mt during last three years. In line with Kazakhstan’s plan, the energy intensity is expected to fall 25% by 2020 and 50% by 2050, Aidarbaev said.
The energy intensity in Kazakhstan is very high, ranking 28 in the world, according to official statistics, published on prime ministry’s official website.
The report says that the economy of Kazakhstan is characterised by high energy intensity of the GDP. "In our country, 55% of energy is supplied by coal, then natural gas with 22%, oil with 19%, and hydroelectric with 3%”.
Aidarbaev said that the more than 5,000 companies which used 49mn mt of fuel last year in total were registered and obliged by law to enhance energy usage.
According to him, they account for 38% of Kazakhstan’s total energy demand. “They have invested $520mn in energy conservation projects in 2015-2016 and further $570mn would be invested by 2020,” he said.
The programme aims to increase energy efficiency in industry by 30%, reduce the fuel usage in transportation sector by 30%, reduce the unit cost of energy for power production by 14%, etc.
Yet, despite all the taken measures, energy intensity remains high, Aidarbaev said, adding that the country’s economy structure depends highly on industries which demand huge amount of energy. “The climate conditions which demands very high heating load also is another challenge,” he said.
Dalga Khatinoglu