The energy-efficient municipalities of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has placed the reorganisation of its energy system and energy supply at the top of its political agenda in order to exploit its energy-saving potential. The government’s national energy strategy set in 2010 the target of reducing energy consumption by at least 25 per cent by 2020 and by 50 per cent by 2050. 10.3 per cent of Kazakhstan’s total energy consumption is attributable to the housing and communal services industry.

Public institutions consume around five per cent of the electrical energy generated in Germany and around 15 per cent of the heating energy. The municipalities have been asked by the government to achieve their energy efficiency targets by implementing specific measures. In practice, however, it is clear that municipalities lack the tools to develop and implement a long-term efficiency strategy and that knowledge about efficiency measures needs to be improved in many places in order to fully utilise the potential.

The project builds on the government’s objective of significantly strengthening its communication on energy efficiency in key target groups and developing instruments for implementing energy efficiency measures. In doing so, dena wants to strengthen the expertise of municipalities and regions in the field of energy efficiency by providing informational material and highlighting examples of best practice. In addition, the development of a management approach for energy efficiency in municipalities is being supported, and pilot projects for the implementation of individual measures as part of energy management in a pilot municipality are being initiated. Municipalities will also be supported in initiating energy efficiency projects and German technology companies are involved.

The medium-term options for action in Kazakhstan will be presented in a communication concept in order to systematically anchor the topic of energy efficiency in municipalities. A number of different measures are to be developed for this purpose. The creation of a brochure on energy efficiency in municipalities and the development and publication of best practice examples will provide concrete support for initial implementation measures.

Instruments based on real-world applications will be made available to municipalities in order to sustainably increase energy efficiency in the municipal sector. The energy management system developed by dena will be introduced in a selected pilot municipality to demonstrate its real-world applicability. The monitoring of this municipality is intended to initiate an optimisation process in a larger number of municipalities.