Aidar Zholshorinov, Deputy Director for development and commerce, CATEC Green Energy LLP

In its activities, the Renewable Energy Association "Qazaq Green" uses various formats for discussion, organizing platforms for meetings of representatives of government agencies and business. Thus, the business expedition Qazaq Green Expedition is already a traditional event. For the first time, the expedition took place in 2022, and its route involved visits to a number of renewable energy stations in the Akmola region and setting up a camp at the Buiratau SNNP. The expedition included familiarization with the work of wind farms, multi-kilometer off-roading, discussions on ways to further develop renewable energy in the field conditions. Throughout the year, the participants of the previous expedition expressed opinions about the need to continue this format of work. In this regard, at the end of this September, the Qazaq Green Expedition - 2023 was organized.

The route of this year's expedition was changed due to seasonality and a gradual decrease in air temperature, especially at night, and included a visit to the wind farm in the Arshaly district of Akmola region and basing at the KEGOC training center in Burabay district.

CATEC GREEN ENERGY WIND POWER PLANT

The expedition began with a visit to Astana EXPO- 2017 Wind Farm (the Project) of CATEC Green Energy LLP (the Company). The installed capacity of the wind farm is 100 MW, the Arshaly district of Akmola region was chosen as the best placement option in terms of resource potential.

The construction of the wind power plant was carried out by two launch complexes of 50 MW each. The first launch complex was successfully commissioned on August 26,2019, the implementation of the 2nd launch complex was completed on November 26,2020. To select the layout of wind turbines, the company analyzed data on the wind potential at the site of the wind power plant from 2011. In addition, its own meteorological tower was installed, through which more than 7 million wind measurements were carried out.

As part of the Project, the Company has installed 29 wind turbines manufactured by Vestas, one of the world leaders in the production of wind turbines with advanced technologies. The equipment used is designed to operate in extremely low temperature conditions.

It should be noted that the wind turbines have overcome a rather long supply route - more than six thousand kilometers by sea and land from the ports of Italy, Spain, Denmark.

The maintenance of main equipment is carried out under the contract with a subsidiary of the manufacturer of wind turbines, Vestas Kazakhstan LLP, which has specially trained personnel at the equipment plant.

In addition, during the implementation of the Project, the Company carried out the construction of such facilities as a 220,000 volt overhead power line with a total length of about 16 kilometers, a 220/35/10 kV booster substation with two 80,000 kVA power transformers, 35 kV cable lines with a total length of about 90 kilometers, general plant facilities, such as garage, storage facilities etc, as well as almost 25 kilometers of highways.

The Project's annual electricity generation is sufficient to cover the needs of 80,000 residential apartments, while the reduced greenhouse gas emissions are equivalent to the annual emissions of 113,000 cars.

QAZAQ GREEN EXPEDITION - DISCUSSION PLATFORM ON RES

After visiting the CATEC Green Energy wind farm, the expedition continued its route to the Burabai National Park, where discussions on topical issues of renewable energy development were organized for two days at the KEGOC training center.

As part of the first discussion, "New problems for RES with the introduction of BEM based on the experience of renewable energy power plants from July 01,2023. Solutions" the participants noted a number of problematic issues. In particular, the lack of coefficients for calculations to RES tariff for positive and negative imbalances for projects launched from July 1,2023, which creates uncertainty for investors in preparation for auctions in this November. In addition, there is no normatively fixed norm for the potential range of deviations. To determine these parameters, the participants requested FSE of RE LLP to provide information on statistics on deviations of renewable energy facilities within the framework of BEM and, following the results, discuss acceptable coefficients and ranges of deviations for new renewable energy projects.

As part of the discussion "Development of the market of bilateral RES contracts (corporate PPA) in new realities", the expedition participants noted that there were no Rules that would regulate the relationship between the renewable energy generating facilities, the consumer and the Single buyer. In addition, the issue of the requirements of the system operator JSC "KEGOC" on the availability of regulatory capacities for projects under bilateral contracts was also discussed.

In particular, representatives of the system operator noted that according to the approved Forecast balance of electric energy and capacity for 2023-2029, the deficit of regulating capacity is projected at the level of 1364 MW by 2025. Already today, the power system is operating in a monthly deficit mode, which necessitates the introduction of consumer restrictions.

As part of the discussion of the prospects for the development of renewable energy, the expedition participants discussed the Strategy for Development of the Electric power industry in 2035 developed and implemented at the initiative of the business community of the electric power industry by order of the Kazakhstan Electric Power Association. The strategy should not only show the key milestones in the development of generation and consumption of electric energy, but also give an economic assessment of further development of the industry, taking into account the interests of the state, business and the population and the impact on tariffs for end consumers. It is planned that the work will be completed by the end of this year.

RES SCHOOL "QAZAQ GREEN"

In parallel with the work of the expedition, the 3rd cohort of RES School Qazaq Green was trained at the KEGOC training center. This time, representatives of the private sector, the oil and gas sector, experts from consulting companies attended the RES school. The uniqueness of this cohort of RES School is that students could visit an existing renewable energy facility, as well as communicate with representatives of the renewable energy sector - investors, developers, equipment suppliers, representatives of government agencies regulating the development of the sector.

During the training, unique knowledge was obtained from industry experts in the field of legislative regulation of the renewable energy sector, topical issues of integration of the renewable energy sector into the National Energy System of the Republic of Kazakhstan, principles of operation of solar plants and wind turbines, economic indicators of the implementation of RES projects, ESG-colitics.

RES School "Qazaq Green" performs an important function by conveying qualified knowledge from expert practitioners to all those interested in the development of renewable energy. It is gratifying that the main students are representatives of private companies that plan to introduce renewable energy technologies for their own needs. We are confident that this will make an important contribution to the decarbonization of our country's economy," - said Ainur Sospanova, Chairperson of the Management Board of Renewable Energy Association "Qazaq Green".