Page 99 - TURKRptJun19

9.1.9 Utilities sector news
Turkey’s electricity consumption down 0.8% y/y in April. Turkey consumed 22.6bn kilowatt-hours of electricity in April, marking a 0.76% decline from a year ago, data from the country’s energy ministry has shown. The fall could be attributed to slower economic activity in the recession-hit country. In the month, the headline purchasing managers index (PMI) for manufacturing declined to 46.8 from 47.2 in March.
Data also showed that electricity production increased by 0.71% to reach 22.78 gigawatt-hours compared to April 2018. In April, 13.69% of Turkey’s electricity was produced by natural gas power plants while 43.75% came from hydro plants and 13.86% from imported coal. Local coal plants contributed 17.25% to electricity generation, wind plants provided 6.50% and the remaining 4.95% of electricity production was generated from geothermal, fuel oil and biogas plants. Earlier in the month, Energy Minister Fatih Sonmez said a total of TRY8.8bn would be invested in the country’s electricity distribution network over the next two years. He also noted that private companies have budgeted TRY18bn to be spent on transmission and distribution networks between 2016 and 2020 while the public sector would invest another TRY12bn over the same period.
The share of renewable sources in Turkey’s total electricity production increased to 62% in the first quarter from 48.5% in the same period a year ago, the country’s energy ministry has said. In January-March, 74.25bn kilowatt-hours of electricity were generated of which 46.11bn came from local and renewable energy resources. The share of hydroelectric power plants in energy production was 30.4%, up from 19.18% in the first quarter of 2018. Local coal accounted for a 16.22% share while wind made up 8.33% of production. A total of 3.04% came from geothermal sources, and solar, biomass and energy resources held a 4.09% share. The share of natural gas fell to 17.9% from 31%. Turkey's total installed local and renewables-based power capacity increased to 53.47 gigawatts from 50.31 gigawatts.
Turkey set to announce results of second round of wind power tenders for 1,000 MW. Turkey is processing a second round of tenders for wind power plants under its Renewable Energy Resource Areas (YEKA) system, pro- government Daily Sabah reported on May 27. Bids were reportedly evaluated on April 18 with the results to be announced on May 30. Four power plants are to be located in the provinces of Aydin, Mugla, Balikesir and Canakkale, each with a capacity of 250 megawatts. The newspaper’s report said Germany’s Enercon and Turkish companies Beycelik, Enerjisa and Iklim were among the bidders. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez has said Turkey is becoming a global force in wind power by expanding investments and raising capacity. A consortium of Siemens and local companies Turkerler and Kalyon won the first YEKA tender for 1,000 MW of wind energy capacity in August last year. Turkey adopted its system of YEKA green energy policies and projects in 2013. Turkey ranked seventh among European countries, including Russia and Ukraine, for wind power in 2018, according to a WindEurope report. Germany is leading with 59.3 gigawatts of capacity, while Turkey has a capacity of 7.4 GW, it added.
The Turkish government has finally issued a net metering scheme for solar systems not exceeding 10 kW of generation capacity in what is Turkey’s first attempt to support small-scale photovoltaics (PV), PV Magazine wrote on May 20. New rules for larger, unlicensed projects have also been introduced, with the size limit for eligible systems raised to 5 MW, it added. The Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) published new rules for the operation of solar power systems ranging in generation capacity from 3-10 kW under a net metering regime. The EPDK issued a first draft for the scheme in January 2018. It will enable Turkish homeowners and businesses to install PV on rooftops or facades without official approval, and to sell excess power to distributors. According to information provided to the publication by Eren Engür, managing partner at Icarus Energy, the scheme will be open to projects with a self-consumption rate of at least 50% and the net metering tariff, to be
99 TURKEY Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com