Ekibastuz-1 power station

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The Ekibastuz-1 power station (also known as Ekibastuz GRES-1, AES-Ekibastuz, and Экибастузская ГРЭС-1) is a 4,000-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station in Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan.

The plant is separate from the Ekibastuz-2 power station.

Location

The undated satellite photo below shows the power station in Ekibastuz.

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Background

History & ownership

The power plant is the largest in Kazakhstan.

Most of the units at the Ekibastuz-1 power station were launched into service in the early 1980s. In January 1996, due to mismanagement and disrepair, the capacity of the station dropped from 1,624 to 1,025 MW, and further dropped to 655 MW by June 1996. Work at the station became hazardous: the equipment was not maintained, most of the control and emergency handling instrumentation was stolen from the power station. The units had to be frequently stopped because of break downs.

From 1996 until 2008, the power station was owned by United States-based AES Corporation. By November 1997, only three units were operational, producing 800 MW on average. In the spring of 1998, all units except one were idle. The customers owed the power station about US$150 million of unpaid tariffs. In 1999, the average produced power was 215 MW. In 2000, it was increased to 317 MW after much needed repairs. As a result, the power station's generating capacity was increased from 1,050 to 1,200 MW, but the problem of finding paying customers still resulted in low production levels.

On February 4, 2008, AES agreed to sell the AES Ekibastuz power station to Kazakhmys. Under the terms of the management agreement, AES continued to operate the station until December 2010. Kazakhmys secured a US$2.1 billion loan to finance its purchase of the power station. The loan was provided by a consortium of 18 banks.

On December 10, 2009, Kazakhmys PLC announced that it would be selling a 50% stake in the power station to the National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna for US$681 million. The transaction was completed in early 2010. In the first five years following the transaction, Kazakhmys would appoint the management team while Samruk-Kazyna would appoint several key oversight positions. Over the next seven years, the parties pledged to provide investments of around $1 billion at Ekibastuz to upgrade the power station and restore it from its current capacity of 2,500 MW to its original nameplate capacity of 4,000 MW.

In 2014, Kazakhmys sold the other 50% stake in the company to Samruk-Energy for USD 1.25 billion. Later Samruk-Kazyna transferred its 50% stake to Samruk-Energy, completing the process for Samruk-Energy to be 100% shareholder in Ekibastuz-1.

Modernization

The power station is undergoing modernization projects and claims to be a leader among power generating enterprises. Three units were reported to be inactive since the 1990s. Unit 2 was brought back into operation in 2014 and Unit 8 in 2012, possibly after modernization.

In June 2010, a pair of contracts were announced with Emerson Electric Company to refurbish many of the control systems on units 3 through 8. It was estimated this effort would take 5 years to complete and would increase the efficiency of the affected units at the power station.

Unit 1

As of May 2021, work was underway to install electrostatic precipitators at Unit 1. Unit 1 was partially dismantled and was not operating while it was being modernized. The implementation of the project and commissioning of the reconstructed Unit 1 was expected to increase the plant's capacity by 550 MW (up to 4,050 MW) and to significantly reduce environmental impacts through modern ash and slag removal technologies. The cost of the project was estimated at 123.7 billion tenge and was expected to be complete in 2023. Additionally, as of November 2021, modernization of units 3-8 was planned for 2028-2035 and was expected to increase the plant's capacity by 240 MW.

The plant's installed capacity was reported to be 3,500 MW in 2019-2021, as per Samruk's Energy annual reports. Capacity reduced from 4,000 MW to 3,500 MW during 2018, according to earlier company's annual reports, as Unit 1 was being refurbished. It was earlier reported that 3 units were out of operation, but this appears to have been incorrect. As of December 2022, Samruk-Energo's website states that Unit 1's modernization will be completed by 2024 which will allow to reach the design capacity of 4000MW and meet increasing demand in Kazakhstan as well as in the neighbouring countries.

In January 2023 a press release by Samruk-Energo stated that completion of construction and commissioning of the unit are scheduled for December 2023.

Generation

The plant generated 19,466 million kWh of electricity in 2020, 22,788 million kWh in 2021. In 2022 electricity generation reached 23,019 million kWh. These production levels are consistent with installed capacity of 3,500MW.

Pollution rating

The government decree from April 2022 ranks the Ekibastuz GRES-1 as Number 1 in the list of the main polluters in Kazakhstan as of 2021. The government decree comes into force from 2025. It is not clear what the purpose of the ranking is.

In June 2022 it was reported that the power plant was fined 33 billion tenge (ca USD 69 million) for non-compliance with carbon emissions quota established for 2018-2020, the plant exceeded allowed emissions by 2 million tons of CO2.

2021-2025 City development plans

As part of a 2021-2025 city development plan, investment projects in the mining, metallurgical, coal-chemical, and manufacturing industries are planned for the industrial zone.

Project Details

• Owner: Samruk-Energo JSC
• Parent company: Samruk-Kazyna
• Developer:
• Location: Ekibastuz, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
• Coordinates: 51.886137, 75.376928 (exact)
• Status:
  • Operating (Units 2 - 8)
  • Mothballed (Units 1, expected to be re-commissioned in 2024 with 550MW)
• Capacity: 4,000 MW (Units 1-8: 500 MW)
• Type: Supercritical
• Start date: 1980 (Units 1-2), 1981 (Units 3-4), 1982 (Unit 5), 1983 (Units 6-7), 1984 (Unit 8)
• Coal Type: Bituminous
• Coal Source: Ekibastuz coal basin

Articles and resources

Related GEM.wiki articles

• Kazakhstan and coal

This article uses content from the Wikipedia page "Ekibastuz GRES-1," under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.