Line stories: Amangazy Zhumagalievich BAIMUKHAMBETOV, pensioner, engineer

I was born in the village of Merke, Zhambyl region. In 1967 he moved to Almaty and from September 12 of the same year until retirement he worked at CHPP-1. He started as an electrician of the 2nd category and ended up working as a shop manager. In 1985, I moved to the fuel transport department and worked in fuel supply for 29 years. Even after retirement, I worked at a thermal power plant for another 5 years.

When I first arrived at the station, boilers and turbines were still working here. Working with solid fuel means emissions and coal dust: it was impossible to stand under the chimney, and residents constantly complained about the station because of the black dust.

Previously, before the new boilers, the coal warehouse was designed for 200-250 tons. During my time, the 10th and 13th boilers were already built. When the boilers were built, there was no room to store additional coal. Therefore, they began to prepare coal even in winter. But the station was not adapted to this. And then the Belgians, who bought the Almaty energy complex in 1996, made a hothouse to heat frozen coal.

The train arrived from Karaganda and Ekibastuz, where large blocks were loaded. In addition, the coal was compressed on the way, and it was impossible to unload it at the station. It was necessary to warm it up, crush it, unload it… Only then could it be sent for feeding. The work was hard, the pressure on us was great…

Then a special structure was even created that was responsible for this – the Fuel Reception and Unloading Center. This is a separate department, which will be 26 years old in 2024. Before that, this service was inside the station. I remember in 1997 the Belgians asked what kind of coal we needed. The shop manager ordered three bulldozers, and then we were given Russian coal concentrate. I stood near the unloading: pebbles were flying, but no dust. And when ordinary coal was unloaded, so as not to cause too much dust, we increased the humidity. We pumped about 3 thousand tons a day into the boiler shop.

During my work, I repaired all the electric motors in the power plant. From the emergency situations of the Soviet era – at the end of the 80s – I remember how at one moment all the flood pumps that were buried fell under water. There, in the boiler shop, there is a low point. And there were three engines. Water also flooded the ash dump – it was tens of thousands of liters. I remember that she was already the height of a man, and the water kept coming and coming. We needed to pump it out constantly…

It was these engines that I worked on. It was necessary to quickly dismantle them, pull them out, install new ones, and if not, then dry them. Then the task was to start at least one engine. Then the boiler workers worked on the pump, the electricians worked. There were about twenty of us in total to eliminate this emergency. It took us 4-5 hours to remove and replace the pump. Fortunately, I had reserves. The backup system was turned on so that at least one pump out of three would work and the emergency situation could be removed. Then we managed…

And I was also among those who unloaded and fed the last batch of coal into the furnace… Then the station switched to gas. Everything went smoothly, there was no event or celebration. We were simply told: “Don’t serve coal” – that’s all.

But now everyone understands that this was probably the most important environmental event for Almaty and the station!”