Nowadays, 34 hydro power plants (hereinafter – the “HPP”) are located on the territory of Kazakhstan. USAID power the future regional program (2019) explored that hydropower is the second-largest RES in Kazakhstan. As of 2017, it accounts for about 10.9% of the country’s generating capacity.
Ranking third among CIS countries in water resource potential, Kazakhstan has an estimated potential of 170 billion kWh per year, of which about 62 billion kWh are technically feasible. The annual hydropower potential of medium and large rivers is 55 billion kWh, and 7.6 billion kWh from small rivers. About 8 billion kWh from small hydropower plants are estimated to be technically feasible.
Hydro energy resources are distributed throughout the country, but three areas have particularly large resources: the Irtysh River basin and its main tributaries (Bukhtarma, Uba, Ulba, Kurchum, Kardzhil), the southeast zone with the Ili river basin, and the south zone with the Syrdarya, Talas and Chu river basins.
As of 2017, electricity generation from small hydropower plants (HPPs) was 649 million kWh.6 (p.3).
The largest HPPs in Kazakhstan are:
- Bukhtarma HPP of Kazzinc LLP;
- AES Ust-Kamenogorsk HPP LLP;
- AES Shulbinskaya HPP LLP;
- JSC Moinakskaya HPP.