Shymkent partially left without power: outage affects thousands of consumers

Tengrinews.kz — Massive power outages have hit southern Kazakhstan, affecting Shymkent as well as the Turkistan, Zhambyl, and Kyzylorda regions.

According to the Shymkent city administration's press service, overhead 110 kV power lines tripped at 2:37 PM on August 14, triggering emergency protection systems.

The blackouts were caused by an emergency shutdown of trunk lines operated by KEGOC, the national grid operator. Authorities are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the line failures and the activation of the emergency automated systems.

Shymkent

In Shymkent, partial outages were reported in the Saule, Akzhar, Aktas, Zhanatalap, Turlan, Telman, Kommunizm, Otyrar, 17th, and 18th micro-districts.

The outage affected 38,760 residential and 4,790 commercial customers.

A total of 114.4 megawatts of load was temporarily disconnected in the city.

In Turkistan regiona special automatic load shedding system was activated, resulting in the disconnection of 92.6 megawatts of load.

In Zhambyl regionthe volume of load disconnected by this system reached 142 megawatts. This was the highest figure among the four regions affected by the emergency automation.

In Kyzylorda regionthe special automatic load shedding system disconnected 31.6 megawatts of load.

Cause of the outage

According to KEGOC, two emergency protection systems—special automatic load shedding and automatic frequency shedding—were triggered in the Southern region at 2:37 PM.

The activation occurred due to a separation of the 500 kV "North–South" and "North-East–South" transit power lines.

The special automatic load shedding system disconnected a total of 380.6 megawatts. This included 92.6 megawatts in the Turkistan region, 114.4 megawatts in Shymkent, 142 megawatts in the Zhambyl region, and 31.6 megawatts in the Kyzylorda region.

Additionally, official data indicates that automatic frequency shedding was triggered, resulting in the disconnection of a further 234.8 megawatts. Consequently, the total load disconnected by both emergency systems amounted to 615.4 megawatts.

What happened to the power in Kazakhstan

In Almaty and the Almaty region, power disruptions began around 3:00 PM on August 14. Residents in various city districts reported outages. According to official data, a failure occurred on 500 kV overhead power lines owned by KEGOC.

Power outages were reported in the Zhambyl, Balkhash, Yesik, Karasay, Shelek, Raiymbek, Uygur, Ili, Kegen, and Talgar districts of the Almaty Region.

Alatau Zharyk Company JSC clarified that specialists are taking necessary measures to restore electricity to consumers. In Almaty, outages have been officially confirmed in the Bostandyk, Nauryzbay, Auezov, and Alatau districts.

In Almaty itself, the the blackouts, traffic lights failed and communication disruptions occurred, leading to rapid gridlock across the city. Traffic controllers were deployed to major intersections.

Almaty was paralyzed by heavy traffic jams amid the widespread power failure.

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