Our electrical grid is nuclear-ready, says Kazakh energy minister

Energy minister Almassadam Satkaliyev assured journalists that a would-be nuclear power plant will not overload the power grids of the country. According to him, the country holds enough capacity of transmission lines and substations to handle nuclear power, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.

Satkaliyev said that the country’s first nuclear power plant is to be located in the vicinity where peaks in demand are handled. So, transmission lines there are resistant to overloads, while substations have sufficient storage capacity to stabilize the entire energy grid.

In case of a 2,400MW station, construction of a power line of 500kW from the South Kuzbass Power Station or either to Zhambyl or Shymkent substations, depending on the mode, will be needed. This will ensure power generation and stable power grid operation, he said.

Kazakh energy minister Satkaliyev went on to say that Kazakhstan will be ready in case any incident should happen, ensuring that there will be no incident similar to one at Rostov NPP on July 16 this year, which was caused by high temperatures, leading to a shutdown of over a hundred substations, after which several Russian regions were left without electricity.

The power grid mode scheme is being automatically reviewed, as well as additional lines are being considered to be deployed in case of such an accident. The fact should be taken into account that Kazakhstan’s power grids are in parallel with the central grids of Russia and the Central Asian countries, allowing for mutual backups, said minister Satkaliyev.

He stated that in case of a major incident, the country will be able to minimize all the consequences.