Explosion triggers major blackout in Almaty, Kazakhstan

A major blackout occurred in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on the morning of November 17 following an emergency incident.

Social media users wrote that an explosion was heard near Sairan Lake at around 9:00 local time, followed by a loss of electricity, Caliber.Az reports per Kazakh media.

The city’s Emergency Situations Department clarified that the incident happened at 08:53 in the Auezov district, at 76 Utegen Batyr Street.

“A report was received about a fire at a transformer substation. Fire crews were dispatched promptly. Upon arrival, open burning was found at the substation over an area of 0.2 square metres. Power company staff are working to disconnect the facility. Firefighters are operating with full safety precautions, given the specifics of the site,” the department said.

Alatau Zharyk Company (AZhK) provided details regarding the outage.

Residents of the following districts were partially left without electricity:

• Bostandyk District;
• Auezov District;
• Almaly District.

At the same time, AZhK stated that the information being circulated about a fire at a transformer substation (TS) is not confirmed and does not correspond to reality.

“The cause of the outage was the ignition of the terminal sleeve of the 110 kV overhead power transmission line L-110A.

Power supply was restored at 09:13,” the company explained.

Earlier, on November 13, 2025, a large-scale power outage occurred in the Alatau District of Almaty, leaving some consumers without this essential service for an extended period.

By Jeyhun Aghazada