Inter RAO wants to start commercial power exports to Kazakhstan

SOCHI, Oct 28 (PRIME) -- Power holding Inter RAO, Russia’s only exporter of power, is interested in launching commercial exports to Kazakhstan in November–December, Alexandra Panina, member of the company’s management board and acting head of the trading department, told reporters on Thursday.

“There is deficit (of power) emerging in Kazakhstan. We are in negotiations with the Kazakh side,” she said.

“We are discussing the possibility of commercial supplies of Russian power to Kazakhstan in November. Our power is more expensive than what they are used to, but we will try to start sales in November–December, we will start to offer our power actively on the Kazakh market.”

Kazakhstan is an interesting zone for development of Inter RAO’s business, but the structure of supplies has not been discussed yet, she said.

Power market regulator Sovet Rynka said in a statement that higher exports to Kazakhstan may lower the cost of capacities for Russian consumers slightly, but it would depend on the schedule of supplies.

“At the same time, higher exports will raise power demand on the Russian market. If power plants with costly power production, which were previously suspended, start working to cover the increase in demand, it may have an impact on the market power prices the day ahead,” the regulator said.

Earlier in October, Kazakh power grid operator KEGOC said that malfunctions on the power plants and a rapid increase in power consumption by cryptocurrency miners pushed demand higher than supply.

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