At the meeting of the Government chaired by Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, issues of digitization in the construction and utilities sectors were considered. The Minister for Investments and Development Zhenis Kassymbek reported on the progress of introducing digital technologies into socially significant areas.

At the meeting of the Government chaired by Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, issues of digitization in the construction and utilities sectors were considered. The Minister for Investments and Development Zhenis Kassymbek reported on the progress of introducing digital technologies into socially significant areas.

According to the Minister for Investments and Development, the digitization of housing and public utilities is necessary to achieve transparency in the activities of all participants in the sector, provide social satisfaction, improve the quality of services provided. In order to ensure the confidence of citizens in the sector, it is necessary to first arrange residential buildings.

Kassymbek indicated that this is a full-scale installation of smart metering devices with the ability to transfer data. According to the information of local executive bodies in the country, the apportionment of apartment houses is 45%. About 50 thousand of communal home utilities registering devices, about 62 thousand additional devices are needed.

Today, according to the data of the Ministry of Education and Science, when installing general heat metering devices without an automatic heat supply station, the payment for heat of a two-room apartment with an area of ​​60 m² will drop to 36% or an average of 2,720 tenge. On a national scale, this savings in monetary terms can reach 32.5 billion tenge per year.

As an example, Kassymbek provided data from the receipt of an apartment of 29.8 m² in Aktobe. As can be seen from the receipt, in October 2017 the amount for heating amounted to 3,547 tenge. After the installation of heat metering devices and an automatic heat supply station in October 2018, the amount for heating was 466 tenge, i.e. the savings were 3,081 tenge.

“For the full-scale introduction of general-purpose heat metering devices and automatic heat points, we are preparing a package of documents on attracting investments and funds from second-tier banks,” said the minister.

At the same time, today the Unified Information System of the housing stock and housing and public utilities under the title “e-SHANYRAQ” has been created in pilot mode. The system will allow residents to participate in the management of the house online, ensuring transparency, monitoring the exchange of funds and their intended use in the accounts of the management company. Residents in real time will be able to verify the correctness of billing, based on meter readings and approved tariffs.

“As part of the pilot project, it was planned to connect 190 multi-apartment residential buildings to e-SHANYRAQ until the end of 2018. By the end of the year, we plan to connect to the system about 2 thousand technical passports of multi-residential buildings and more than 4 thousand metering devices, 100% connection is expected in 2022,” said Kassymbek.

According to the Minister for Investments and Development, with a view to putting e-SHANYRAQ into commercial operation, changes in legislation are envisaged. So, at the moment, changes to the draft law “On Housing Relations” are under consideration in the Parliament of Kazakhstan.

In addition, the introduction of new technologies is planned. To date, areas in Kazakhstan have already been identified in Astana, Almaty, Atyrau and Taraz for the implementation of pilot projects. As Kassymbek informed, Nov. 30 the German company Merus began a pilot project on the application of anti-corrosion technologies in Astana, together with Astana-Teplotranzit JSC, on a 24-km-long steel pipe. The possibility of implementing a pilot project on the application of anti-corrosion technologies of the Japanese company Mitsui & Co in Almaty is also being studied.

“According to the test results, a decision will be made on the large-scale implementation of technologies and on the production of this equipment in Kazakhstan. Using anti-corrosion technologies, it is possible to reduce the final cost of upgrading 100 km of networks from an average of 16 billion tenge to 2.4 billion tenge and extend the life cycle of heating networks to 30 years,” noted Kassymbek.

The implementation of the above proposals, according to the forecasts of the Ministry for Investments and Development, will allow to achieve, according to preliminary estimates, the cumulative effect from 2.4 trillion tenge to 3.9 trillion tenge. The load on the state budget will decrease by 6.7 times. By reducing losses on networks up to 9%, a saving of 52.7 billion tenge per year is expected. Saving primary resources will make it possible to reduce CO₂ emissions to 5.8 million tons per year. A reduction in the energy consumption of the housing and utilities sector to 17% is expected due to a reduction in losses in the heating networks. This will free up additional capacity for the economy.

In general, to implement the above proposals, as noted by Kassymbek, it is necessary to carry out a complete inventory of apartment houses and other facilities over the next year, ensure that all natural monopolies are connected to the unified information system of the housing stock and utilities, implement an energy service contract, develop new mechanisms financing and introduction of equipment, uniform technical requirements for metering devices, as well as to strengthen the mechanisms of tariff incentives for the use of new technologies.

In addition, in digitization of the construction industry, as part of the implementation of the instructions from the Head of State, the quality control of the construction sector is being strengthened. Currently, documents are being transferred from traditional paper media to electronic format, which will create transparency of business processes in construction. To solve this problem, a “Single digital portal” has been created, the information system of which is being tested in pilot mode at real sites in the city of Astana. The main participants in the construction process are the contracting organization, technical and design supervision, which, using the electronic signatire, gain access to the specified portal and carry out functions within their competence. Also, one of the advantages is the ability to connect to the system of all interested government agencies.

“The portal covers all stages of construction — from the excavation to the completion of construction. All hidden works will not only end with acts, but also be stored in photo and video format. It should be noted that the portal allows you to track the use of materials of domestic production with the help of the entrance control journal,” said Kassymbek.

In addition, in real time, you can watch a video broadcast from the construction site. The system will also ensure quality control at all stages of construction, including the procedure for commissioning the facility. Each participant will be able to electronically sign the appropriate declaration, a quality statement, a statement on the compliance of the work performed, after which the customer signs the facility acceptance certificate and sends it to the State Corporation for registration with one click.

Thus, the introduction of the “Single digital portal” will significantly improve the quality of construction and transparency of processes. Applied during the construction of equipment for photo and video fixation after commissioning of the facility will be connected to the citywide video surveillance system. As part of the pilot project, the information system is being finalized. After all the relevant procedures have been completed, it is planned to put this portal into commercial operation in 2019.

Deputy Prime Minister Askar Zhumagaliyev noted that the Unified Information System for Housing and Public Utilities e-SHANYRAQ has already begun its work in pilot mode. Starting next year, technologies such as production Internet, blockchain and Big Data will be introduced. Legislation is being introduced in this direction. Land issues are being considered in the direction of digitalization of construction, business processes have been optimized. For example, the procedure for obtaining a construction license has been reduced from 15 to 5 days. In order to automate building processes, road maps have been approved. In addition, as part of these projects, several domestic IT solutions have been implemented. In 2019, these services will be provided only online. In other areas, work will continue.

Akims of the Atyrau region — Nurlan Nogayev and the city of Almaty — Bauyrzhan Baibek reported on the work carried out in the regions.

Following the consideration of the issue, the Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev noted that the work is being done in the right direction, and also instructed the Ministry for Investments and Development to complete all pilot projects in the housing and utilities sector by the end of the year and calculate the economic effect.

However, it is entrusted to pay special attention to quality parameters. Reducing electricity tariffs should not affect the quality of work of natural monopolies. Investment program commitments must be met.

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