Mazhilis considers draft law on energy efficiency

Kazakhstan plans to introduce a new mechanism of state control for energy saving. For this purpose, local executive bodies will be empowered to implement energy saving roadmaps for three years. The corresponding draft law was considered in the Mazhilis, the Lower House of the Kazakh Parliament. Kazakh Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Beibut Atamkulov said that there are no programs aimed at energy conservation at the local level to date. The document offers to introduce responsible persons for energy conservation at large enterprises in the country. They will act as energy managers. Thus, the quality of the energy audit and the professional level of the sector’s experts will be improved. It is also planned to classify energy audits into full, targeted and rapid. The energy register proposes to optimize the list of information for the private sector. Overall, the bill will strengthen several energy efficiency requirements, the relevant department noted.

“A number of tools are proposed to strengthen the regulation of the budgetary sector. In particular, the introduction of energy-efficient government procurement, which will reduce energy consumption in government agencies and give an impetus to the transformation of the Kazakh market for energy-consuming equipment. It is offered to establish energy consumption standards, monitoring their compliance, benchmarking and issuance of appropriate recommendations for energy efficiency,” said Beibut Atamkulov, Kazakh Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development.

Translation by Saniya Sakenova

Editing by Saule Mukhamejanova