Astana, 28 October. The management board of the Samruk-Kazyna fund has dismissed Kairat Maksutov as chairman of the board of Samruk-Energo over the unsatisfactory pace of the company's strategic investment projects and insufficient control over deadlines for building and commissioning new generating capacity, the government press office said.
The decision came a few hours after the address in which President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev gave energy his harshest assessment. He called the 123 billion kWh produced in the country catastrophically insufficient, criticised the long-standing practice of buying electricity from neighbours at high prices in winter and returning it cheaply in summer, and said the commissioning of generating capacity in Turkestan, Kyzylorda, Almaty and Ekibastuz was being delayed. He set the government the task of achieving a stable energy surplus by 2029.
Samruk-Energo is the energy holding of the Samruk-Kazyna fund, which owns large power plants, coal mines and distribution networks. Maksutov had worked at the company since 2009 as deputy chairman for finance and economics, managing director and deputy chairman, and had led it since June 2023, according to his profile. The announcement did not say who will run the company in the interim.
What it means: The first personnel decision after the address concerned energy: the head of the state energy holding was removed over delays in building the power plants the President had spoken about that morning.
Who benefits: The government and Samruk-Kazyna, which show that the address's instructions are being acted on at once. For electricity consumers a change of chief does not in itself add capacity: what matters is commissioning new plants on time.
Background: The delays the President referred to concern the commissioning of new generating capacity rather than repairs to existing plants: the Ekibastuz heat and power plant, for example, enters winter after repairs with 90% fewer outages. The President ordered the single national energy balance to be updated to 2035.
We have also reported that the address directed 6.5 trillion tenge to "People's Construction" and that the Ekibastuz heat and power plant enters winter after repairs with 90% fewer outages.
