On August 14, 2026, a large-scale power outage occurred in Kazakhstan, affecting eight regions of the country. As a result of a technical disruption, consumers in Almaty, Zhambyl, Turkistan, Kyzylorda, Karaganda, and Abai regions, as well as in the Zhetisu and Ulytau regions, were left without electricity... reports the website infohub.kz.
According to the press service of KEGOC, the incident occurred at 14:37 Astana time. The cause was the shutdown of two hydro-generators at the Toktogul Hydroelectric Power Station in Kyrgyzstan, which led to an overload of the North-East-South transit of the Unified Energy System of Kazakhstan and the separation of the Southern zone from the UES of Kazakhstan and the energy systems of the United Energy Complex of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan).
As a result, emergency automation was triggered, leading to the disconnection of consumers in the mentioned regions. Restoration of power supply began almost immediately: by 14:47, KEGOC had fully restored electricity supply in Karaganda, Abai, and Ulytau regions. By 16:26, electricity returned to Almaty and Zhetisu regions, and by 16:34, to Zhambyl, Turkistan, and Kyzylorda regions.
A special commission has been created to investigate the causes of the technical disruption. The Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan clarified that the incident was caused by a power surge in the energy system, triggered by a sharp change in the flow of electricity from the Central Asian energy system.