Ural Turbine Plant (part of Renova Group) shipped a 60-megawatt steam turbine to a power station based in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan. The remaining two cars out of the twenty-car shipment left the company’s premises a couple of days ago. This is the 39th steam turbine the plant has made for Kazakhstan. The previous turbine was sent to Astana at the end of 2005, the spokesperson for Ural Turbine Plant reports.

'The Kazakh market has always been very important to us, so we keep trying to retain our share of it by constantly improving on the goods we offer. This time, the turbine has got a new type of high-pressure cylinder that was developed in our engineering center,’ Ural Turbine Plant’s General Director Vladimir Ermolaev says.

This T-60 turbine is expected to replace the worn-out T-50 one. The power station in Pavlodar is part of Kazakhstan Aluminum that is itself part of Vostok Impex, a large concern.

The Energy Institute and KEGOC's preliminary estimates indicate that the general electricity consumption in Kazakhstan will have increased to 75-82 billion kilowatt-hours by 2010 and to 86-95 billion kilowatt-hours by 2015. To make sure this keen demand for electricity can be adequately responded to, the country needs to raise its electricity production by 1.5 to 1.65 times against the year 2002 by 2015. The trouble lies in the fact that 58% of Kazakh power stations that are operating at the moment will have become completely worn down by then. This means the country’s industry will have to deal with great and challenging tasks and will probably place a lot of orders with the power generating equipment makers.