AN ANTIMONOPOLY INVESTIGATION HAS BEEN LAUNCHED INTO THE REFUSAL OF GRES-1 TO PARTICIPATE IN THE AUCTION

On conducting an investigation in relation to Ekibastuz GRES-1 LLP named after Bulata Nurzhanova" on signs of abuse of a dominant position, Chairman of the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition Marat Omarov said during the board meeting, he also shared details about the charges.

According to him, since January 1, 2019, the electric capacity market has been introduced in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which operates in order to attract investments to maintain existing and introduce new capacities in the unified electric power system of the Republic of Kazakhstan to cover the demand for capacity.

Competitive selection of capacities takes place, among other things, at centralized capacity auctions on the trading floor of KOREM JSC, where auctions are held for reductions from the marginal tariff for a service to maintain capacity availability.

According to the Agency, the company deliberately does not sell part of its volume from year to year, refusing to compete at auctions in order to maintain prices at the maximum permissible level, which eventually leads to an increase in the cost of electric energy for end consumers.

The investigation is ongoing, and an appropriate assessment of the actions of the object of investigation will be given based on its results.

Along with this, measures have been taken in the electricity market in relation to KEGOC. The investigation is in progress.

KEGOC violated EPO's rights by issuing additional bills to pay for electricity, as well as the disproportionate distribution of electricity volumes among consumers. Ekibastuz GRES-1 refused to sell about 50% of the available capacity at centralized auctions from 2019-2022. This led to the maintenance of power prices at a high, maximum permissible level and the annual shortfall of GRES-1 funds in the amount of at least 10 billion tenge in favor of other stations. In November 2023, GRES-1 did not sell about 60% of its available capacity at auction again.