“I completely rule it out” - minister on Kanye West's sphere and the blackout in Almaty
Tengrinews.kz — Could the massive glowing orb used at Kanye West’s Almaty concert have caused the city's blackout? Energy Minister Erlan Akkenzhenov addressed this question during a government briefing.
During the briefing, journalists asked the minister about a theory circulating on social media suggesting that the giant glowing sphere installed for Kanye West’s recent concert in Almaty could have contributed to the power outage. Akkenzhenov stated that the electricity consumption of such equipment is incomparable to the volume of power lost during the blackout.
"Can you imagine the Atyrau Oil Refinery? It consumes 90 megawatts of electricity. In this case, the outage totaled 600 megawatts. Therefore, a sphere that consumes 5–10 megawatts could in no way affect the stability of the southern part of our energy grid," the minister said.
The official emphasized that he completely rules out any impact from the concert equipment, as well as any external interference with the energy system.
"I completely rule out any impact from Kanye West's equipment and, in general, any outside influence or intentional interference. This was an accident that must be investigated thoroughly," he noted.
According to Erlan Akkenzhenov, two commissions will determine the causes of the incident. One is working directly in Kazakhstan to establish why the shutdown occurred and how the power grids responded at the moment of the accident.
The Energy Minister also spoke about the state commission established to investigate the causes of the blackout. The commission is headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Nurlybek Nalibayev. Currently, it has preliminary reviewed the investigation results and continues to clarify specific details.
"The commission will present its findings in the near future," he added.
The Almaty Blackout
On August 14, around 3:00 PM, power suddenly went out in various districts of the city, and soon after, residents of the Almaty region also began reporting outages.
The Ministry of Energy explained that a "power surge" occurred—a sharp change in electricity flow from the Central Asian energy system. This triggered emergency automation systems, temporarily disconnecting some consumers in several regions from the grid.
This led to serious consequences for Almaty. Traffic lights went out, and the city was quickly paralyzed by traffic jams. Police moved to an intensified duty schedule, and traffic controllers were deployed to intersections.
As is often the case, social media users immediately began linking the event to the upcoming concert by famous rapper Kanye West, which was scheduled for the evening of August 14 in Almaty. A Tengrinews.kz correspondent rounded up the most amusing reactions.