On November 1, 2018, the press center of the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan held a press conference with the participation of the Vice-Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Anatoly Shkarup following the first international auction bidding for the selection of renewable energy projects.
The auction was held through the electronic trading platform of “KOREM” JSC, the control over the auction process was provided by the supervisory committee, which was present at all auction auctions. The observers included representatives of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, government bodies, non-governmental organizations.
Auction, being one of the stages of the planned development of renewable energy sources, is aimed at competitive selection of the most efficient projects and the formation of market competitive prices for electricity generated by renewable energy facilities.
The auction mechanism has replaced the fixed tariffs in force until 2018, which initially allowed the launch of the renewable energy sector in the country. The auction mechanism allowed to determine the objective market price for electricity generated by renewable energy facilities, to build a transparent selection process of potential investors.
This year in Kazakhstan, 1000 MW of installed capacities of renewable energy projects have been proposed for implementation, with a breakdown by RES type:
- solar power plants - 290 MW;
- wind power stations - 620 MW;
- hydroelectric power stations - 75 MW;
- BioES - 15 MW.
During the year, spring and autumn sessions of auction tenders were held. Spring session from May 23 to June 7, 2018 and autumn session from October 3 to October 18, 2018
Auction demonstrated great interest, both local and international participants.
113 companies from 9 countries took part in the auction: Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Turkey, France, Bulgaria, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands.
According to the results of the auction bidding, 30 companies have the opportunity to sign contracts with a single purchaser of electricity for renewable energy for 15 years for a total capacity of 857.93 MW, of which the WPPs are 500.85 MW, the SES is 270 MW, the small hydroelectric power stations are 82.08 MW and BioES 5 MW.
As a result of the auction bidding in 2018, the maximum reduction in the auction price for wind generation was 23.3%, for solar generation - 48%, for small hydro projects - 23.4%, BioES - 1%, which is a very good result confirming that the creation of a competitive field allowed us to determine the market prices for electricity generated by renewable energy.