Kazakhstan Adapts Existing Water Infrastructure for Hydropower

Kazakhstan has begun adapting its legacy water management infrastructure for energy generation. The state enterprise Kazvodkhoz will construct small hydropower plants on existing reservoirs. Engineering documentation for the first three facilities is currently undergoing state evaluation. These new hydroelectric stations will be built at three sites – the Samarkand reservoir in the Karaganda region, the Kargaly reservoir in the Aktobe region, and the Karakol reservoir in the Abai region.

This initiative is part of a broader strategy adopted last autumn. A nationwide audit of hydraulic structures identified 29 locations where installing hydro turbines is technically feasible and requires no additional interference with local ecosystems. The combined capacity of this decentralized network will reach 30 megawatts annually.

The government will not finance this energy transition solely through the state budget. Following the initial three stations, Kazvodkhoz will prepare hydropower projects for five additional sites – three of which will be developed using private capital.

Operational examples of this infrastructure integration already exist within the country. Kazvodkhoz currently manages three functioning small hydropower plants generating electricity at the Sergeyev dam in the North Kazakhstan region, the Intumak reservoir in the Karaganda region, and the Dostyk dam on the transboundary Khorgos river. The newly launched roadmap will scale this decentralized energy model to a national level.