Lines of history: Maksat Nurakhmetovich ASTAUBAYEV, Chief Engineer of CHPP-1 named after B.Orazbayev

Back in my fifth year of studies, in 2008, when I was a student, I started working at CHPP-1 as a machinist of the 4th category of the turbine shop. By that time, ten of my fellow students had already worked at this production facility. My professional growth from a 4th category bypass driver to a senior driver of the 7th category lasted for the most interesting 10 months. I will never forget that incredible time of my life.

There was a severe shortage of operating personnel in those years, and since I had a university degree, it was not difficult for me to get into the essence of schemes, to understand drawings, production instructions, industry norms and rules. Nevertheless, as they say: ‘There is no limit to perfection’. Despite education, our profession requires constant improvement of knowledge, training and, first of all, practice.

And for this reason, young specialists are assigned more experienced mentors. Today I have sixteen labor-intensive, interesting, and very significant for me years of work at this production. But surely, I have had many mentors, of whom I would single out three specialists. Among them, the most memorable for me, let’s say, ‘My guru’, is Boris Petrovich Suminov. He worked as a shift supervisor at the turbine shop.

He was the first man who gave me a “jump start” in my labor journey, the man who taught me how to work, how to handle any given situation. He shared his invaluable experience, passed on to me the knowledge gained over the years. My second mentor was Maulen Tulparovich Itenov. He worked as deputy shop manager for operation for more than 10 years. And when he decided to leave his position, I was appointed to replace him.

The third mentor was Alexey Andreyevich Kim, an 18-year-long manager with the position of chief engineer at CHPP-1. Owing to these good people, wonderful professionals, I learnt a lot and went through all stages of professional and career growth.

I was appointed acting shift supervisor of the turbine shop in 2011. And when, in 2012, the construction of the facility to receive heat from CHPP-2 began, I was appointed supervisor of construction support. Although I was only 24 years old at the time. But I was not afraid of it and enthusiastically started my way in this direction.

I spent half a year supervising the technological part of the project – organization of works on operational management, individual and functional tests, complex testing, etc. Together with the contractor’s personnel, I participated in software development and in the process of commissioning of the automated process control system. Further, in 2014, I was offered the position of Deputy Head of the Turbine Shop for Operations. I took up any new and interesting for me business, and every time I realized that I was in my place, I never regretted my chosen profession. Later on, I worked as a shift supervisor of the power plant, deputy chief engineer for 7 years, and in May 2023 I was appointed chief engineer of the Production Department of CHPP-1.

I would like to add that mentoring in AlES JSC is a long-standing tradition, which is still supported by the Company’s management. Each of us can become a mentor. Not necessarily only engineering and technical workers can be mentors, even ordinary workers can pass on experience and knowledge to young people in their own way of mentoring. We have a lot of professionals who help young people at will, teach them the basics and secrets of the profession.

In fact, I would like to share my impressions about the scale of the first Almatinskaya CHPP. Its area is as much as thirty-four hectares. Many people do not know that B.Orazbayev CHPP-1 is the oldest power plant in Almaty. Its construction began in 1932, the first unit was put under industrial load in 1935. Equipment, buildings and structures of those years are still in good condition on the territory of the station.

Many visitors of the CHPP are surprised by our street clocks, modifications of the early seventies. There are three of them left on the territory, because recently thirty of their ‘brothers’ – street and internal – have been replaced with more modern ones. I can’t help but say about the ‘communication centre’, where the main reference clocks are installed – they give rhythm to other clocks. Moreover, the centralized clocks are regulated for fire safety.

The plant’s emissions are practically nonexistent. In 2017, by decision of the Maslikhat of Almaty, CHPP-1 was transferred to ecologically clean natural gas. The reserve fuel is fuel oil of M-100 grade. An automated system of monitoring and control of emissions into the atmosphere was installed at the stationary sources of emissions of CHPP-1, i.e. at the chimneys in 2023.

This was an important stage in improving environmental safety, in accordance with the requirements of the country’s environmental legislation. Now, environmental monitoring is carried out continuously and uninterruptedly.

Our power plant is unique and special in that it is the only CHPP in Kazakhstan and CIS countries that has condensing turbines, but has no cooling towers to cool the circulating water. This means that there is minimal heat loss in the steam and water path for combined heat and power generation.

The cooling tower is an integral part of condensing turbines. It cools the exhaust steam, but, in fact, we do not have one due to the fact that the main task of the plant is to generate heat energy to a greater extent than electricity. When we burn 100% of fuel, 78% of it is used for heat, and we generate electricity as a by-product.

Due to the absence of cooling towers, we have the lowest specific fuel consumption for electricity and heat generation. There are no such indicators at other plants. If we go a little further into the figures, I can share the data: for 2023, specific consumption of fuel equivalent was 157.3g/kWh for power generation and 161kg/Gcal for heat generation. And if we compare these data with technical and economic indicators of CHPP-3, their specific consumption is 3.3 times higher, and at CHPP-2 it is almost 2.7 times higher. That is, we produce more electric and thermal energy with minimal fuel combustion, respectively – and less emissions. This is so great!

Today, CHPP-1 has an installed electric capacity of 145 MW and an installed heat capacity of 1203 Gcal. On average, CHPP-1 annually generates 370÷486 million kWh of electricity and 1.2÷1.4 million Gcal of heat energy.

I would also like to share that our company AlES JSC provides heat in the volume of 70% of the huge city of Almaty, and electricity provides 70% of the Almaty region, including Almaty.

There are three hundred fifty-six employees at our station, of which one hundred fifty-six are shift personnel; eighty-six are ITR (masters, specialists, clerks and managers). Every day, from thirty-two to thirty-four people of the operating personnel take a shift and service the main and auxiliary equipment of the power plant.

I would like to note that the personnel of CHPP-1 are professionals. And this is the most important factor that the plant has been working successfully and reliably for almost ninety years, providing the city of Almaty with electric and thermal energy.

I can’t help noting the professionalism and responsibility of our personnel. It was manifested not only in ordinary working days, but also in the most difficult situations in the history of the country.

We still remember the very recent pandemic, when our employees continued their work in the conditions of a covid, as well as the January 2022 events. We all know how difficult the situation was in Covid when certain instructions were set by the leadership of the country. When the city was shut down for several months and the population was cut off from basic services, but the majority of our employees were willing to work.

Obviously, we had difficulties in the first two weeks in getting staff to work. We then organized mutual assistance and coped, passed the pandemic without disruption of production of the main product necessary for the livelihood of the residents of the city.

The staff of AlES JSC was also mobilized during the January events. Everyone understood the danger that arose, but everyone also understood how important it was for the CHPP to operate. We watched the aggressive crowd walking around the power plant and prayed that they would not turn in our direction. To be more detailed, in order not to attract the attention of the crowd, we completely switched off the lighting around the perimeter and locked all the entrances.

Nobody gave us any instructions at the time. We were told to hold out until morning. During those difficult days for all of us, I was the main coordinator at the station and understood all the responsibility placed on my shoulders. We had to solve not only production issues, but also simple domestic ones. Such as what to feed the personnel (because the canteen was not working), how to organize rest (it was risky to leave the perimeter of the station). This means that it was necessary to accommodate people for rest right on the territory of the station.

The first days we still took a risk and jumped out by car to the shop, got some food. And then the protesting aggressors tried to take away our car, we managed to deceive them and returned to the CHPP with food. During the January events, we switched to daily work. We had to adjust the work schedule of the operating personnel. The initiative came from the workers themselves.

Back then, the day staff worked nine hours, the night staff – fifteen hours. They slept here, there were no buses, it was impossible to go out of town. ‘Fighters of the invisible front’ is how I would like to call them my colleagues, having gone through such trials together. Having shown their character and resilience, we are even more united. I can still talk a lot about our production, about its history, and about my colleagues. But I would like to finish with simple and sincere words that come from my heart and the depths of my soul: “I am proud to work at this production facility and to be part of such a brave and professional team at CHPP-1”.