ASTANA, May 5. /TASS/. Kazakhstan plans to stop importing electricity from Russia starting 2027 as it develops its own energy capacities, the republic’s Vice Minister of Energy Sungat Yesimkhanov said.
"If we commission all of our planned [energy] facilities at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, I think, we won’t be [purchasing electricity from Russia] at all in 2027," he said at a news conference when asked how much electricity Kazakhstan will purchase from Russia in 2026.
Kazakhstan has been purchasing electricity from Russia annually in recent years due to a shortage of its own capacity. "This year we predict that there will be a gap of around 1-1.2 bln kWh of electricity (between the volume of the republic’s generation and demand - TASS), and we plan to eliminate it (the gap - TASS) in 2027," the official said.
Kazakhstan’s electricity deficit amounted to 2.1 bln kWh in 2024, and roughly 1.5 bln kWh in 2025, he noted. "This figure is decreasing," Yesimkhanov said.
The republic’s Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said in January that the country intended to fully cover the economy’s electricity needs by commissioning new capacity by the end of the first quarter of 2027. Work is underway on 81 projects with a total capacity of 15.3 GW and a total investment volume of more than 13 trillion tenge (over $25 bln), he added.