The construction of an intelligent energy system (Smart Grid) affects all participants in the electric power industry: generation, transmission, distribution, supply, consumption and system operation.

Smart Grid assumes the ability to control the behavior of all its participants in real time in order to ensure sustainable, cost-effective, safe power supply and improve the quality of services provided, their accessibility and implies obtaining technical and economic benefits from the integration of all participants in the energy network, which ensures a high level of reliability and safety.

KEGOC JSC is actively implementing Smart Grid technologies to improve the reliability and efficiency of the UPS of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Currently, projects are under implementation to modernize the SCADA/EMS system and expand the WAMS monitoring system (stage 2), which will improve the efficiency of dispatching control and the observability of the modes of operation of the UPS of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as ensure monitoring of stability reserves and assessment of the state of the UPS of the Republic of Kazakhstan as a whole.

In 2023, the implementation of the Pilot Project ‘Introduction of electric power storage systems in the UPS of the Republic of Kazakhstan’ (Pilot project) was launched to study the impact of electric power storage systems on the regulation of the UPS during the integration of renewable energy sources. On December 4, 2023, an Agreement was signed between KEGOC JSC, China Power International Development Limited, China Power International Holding Limited and the Association of Renewable Energy of Kazakhstan for the implementation of this Pilot Project.

Following the results of the Pilot Project, with the support of the Association of Renewable Energy of Kazakhstan, recommendations will be developed on amendments to regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the development of regulatory and technical documentation on the use of electricity storage systems in the UPS of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The implementation of the Pilot project will stimulate the development of electricity storage technologies in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which in turn will ensure an increase in the number of renewable energy sources in the country.

The Company’s R&D management activities are regulated by relevant internal documents that establish uniform requirements for the organization, planning, accounting, control of execution and acceptance of R&D performed by order of KEGOC JSC. R&D is considered as a process that covers the entire life cycle from defining tasks to evaluating and taking into account the actual effect of using the results of development in the practical activities of the Company.

R&D in the Company is aimed at achieving the strategic goals of the Company in accordance with the Development Plan of KEGOC JSC and the Innovation and Technology Policy of KEGOC JSC.

The main goals in the organization of R&D in the Company are:

• creation, systematization and development of R&D planning and execution processes, taking into account their priority and relevance for the innovative and technological development of the Company;
• ensuring effective interaction of processes related to the development and use of scientific and technical products;
• implementation of R&D results to improve the efficiency and quality of production and business processes;
• monitoring the achievement of targets.

The IIA in KEGOC JSC is aimed at achieving the Company’s strategic goals in accordance with the KEGOC JSC Development Plan and the KEGOC JSC Innovation and Technology Policy.

The organization of the IIA is carried out in accordance with the ‘Rules for the organization of innovation and inventive activities in KEGOC JSC and its subsidiary.’

The main advantage of IIA is the opportunity for each employee to participate in this process, which in turn allows you to minimize the time from birth to the implementation of an idea and cover the maximum number of employees of the Company.

Within the framework of the IIA, ideas are identified with the possibility of being applied in other divisions of the Company and conditions are provided for scaling the offer.

The main objectives of the IIA organization are:

• activation of IIA and further development of mass technical creativity of the Company’s and Subsidiaries’ employees;
• increasing the interest of the Company’s employees in the results of their work through moral and material incentives.

In 2023, 23 applications were recognized as innovative and rewards for innovative proposals in the amount of KZT 15 million were paid. The maximum amount of remuneration of KZT 10 million was paid in 2023 for the implementation of the rationalization proposal ‘Improving the reliability of power supply of the Kostanay power plant’ to the branch of KEGOC JSC Sarbaiskiye MES. As part of this innovation proposal, a technical solution has been developed to reduce transit through third-party networks. The economic effect of the implementation of this innovation proposal is KZT 68 million per year.