Kazakhstan A presidential spokesman warned on Monday that the country would nationalize troubled energy companies after thousands of households were left without heat in the country’s northern island.
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Thousands of people in the northern Kazakh city of Ekibastuz, where temperatures reach minus 30 degrees Celsius, have been without heating since Sunday after a local thermal power station stopped working due to technical problems.
“Kazakhstan’s President Kasim Zomart Tokayev has instructed Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov to investigate the problematic nationalization of energy resources,” Presidential Press Representative Ruslan Zheldibai announced on Facebook.
“Their mismanagement causes accidents and power outages,” he wrote, adding that those responsible for the accident at the Ekibastuz thermal power plant “must be held accountable.”
In early November, an accident at a local heat plant left thousands of families without heat in the eastern city of Rider.
In Kazakhstan, too, there are quite often problems with the supply of electricity.
Last month, state officials acknowledged that 65% of regional power grids are in need of repair.
In Kazakhstan, almost all electricity is produced from gas and coal, but in the southern part of the country, electricity is imported.
During the 30 years of former authoritarian president Nursultan Nazarbayev, the energy sector was liberalized and placed under the control of powerful oligarchs.
