Kazakhstan has approved plans to increase its coal-fired power generation through projects estimated at around 7.5 trillion tenge ($15.5bn) through to 2030, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.
Tokayev approved the plans after assigning coal-fired power generation a national project in January. These include the commissioning and renewal of coal-fired units to add 7.8GW of capacity.
The country also plans to build eight new thermal coal-fired power plants, including its largest 2.64GW facility in Ekibastuz. Thermal power plants would also be built in Kurchatov (700MW) and Zhezkazgan (500MW), as well as in the Kokshetau, Semey and Ust-Kamenogorsk regions.
Older thermal coal-fired power plants, such as the 1GW Ekibastuz-2 and 2.5GW Aksu power plants, and the Karaganda-1 power station, will be modernised to reduce energy shortages.
Kazakhstan expects the projects to create additional thermal coal demand of about 20mn t/yr by 2030. The project is expected to be a collaboration between the mining and transportation sectors.
The project will also expand the fleet of gondola rail cars by 600 units/d, modernise railway infrastructure and introduce tariff corridors for the transportation of fuel for domestic needs.
Kazakhstan had initially drafted the plan to increase its coal-fired power generation in early February.
The country will likely need to rapidly increase coal production. Output fell by 6.2pc on the year to 18.22mn t in January-February, official data show.
The country produced 115.9mn t of thermal coal in 2025, about 6.5pc higher on the year on growing domestic consumption and rising export potential.
