Kazakhstan's MAEK completes repairs early, stops rolling blackouts

ALMATY. Aug 18 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's Mangistau Atomic Energy Complex, or MAEK has completed repairs at its thermal power plant ahead of schedule and ended power cuts for the population and most of the industrial customers, according to the regional authorities.

"Five boiler screen tubes have been replaced in the right section, after the replacement of 12 tubes in the left section earlier," the regional administration said.

The power generation unit was restarted at 5:30 pm on August 17. The team of MAEK engineers is running tests on the generator to eliminate an emergency shutdown.

"The rolling power cuts for the population and most of the industrial enterprises have stopped," the report says.

MAEK on August 11, experienced a double failure of equipment at CHPP-2 that led to a massive power outage in the Mangistau and Atyrau regions, in the west of Kazakhstan. This was the second consecutive shutdown at MAEK over the past month.