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8.1.8 Utilities sector news
Turkey’s daily electricity consumption increased by 5% d/d to 1.13mn MWh on August 3, breaking the previous record high set on July 31.
Power generation was at 1.14mn MW-hours on the same day. Some 37% of electricity production came from natural gas plants, hydropower plants contributed 18% and power plants running off imported coal provided 16%.
On August 2, a number of provinces in Turkey, including Istanbul, the capital Ankara, the country’s third largest city Izmir and the industrial cities of Bursa and Adana experienced hours-long power outages.
Authorities blamed the outages on strong demand and drought. Drought, which has been gripping the country for months, meant hydropower plants were unable to meet demand, they said.
However, the Chamber of Electrical Engineers has challenged this official line.
“The drought has been going on for months and it was obvious that demand for electricity would pick up between late July and early August [due higher power consumption during hot season for air conditioners],” said Mehmet Ozdag from the chamber.
Turkey’s installed capacity was 98,162 MW at end-June. At least 70,000 MW of this capacity should be in use, while at its peak electricity consumption was 50,000 MW, Ozdag said, noting that excluding hydropower plants installed capacity was still high at 66,000 MW.
“We were supposed to have some 20,000MW of additional capacity, which could have easily met demand. However, most of the natural gas combined cycle plants are offline. This begs the question, why are they not generating power? I believe that there are private distribution companies, which operate natural gas plants, that want to take advantage of the drought to negotiate with the government the price of the electricity they sell, thus they do not produce electricity,” said Ozdag.
Ozdag also noted that the gas-fired power plants’ costs have increased significantly due to hikes in natural gas prices. “Would it be possible that those plants are not happy with market prices and this is how they show their discontent?,” he said.
Ahmet Akin, deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), showed some agreement that recent power outages could have been deliberate.
“Those outages occurred in the early hours of the day when demand for electricity was low. Would it be possible that those private companies did not supply power because they sell electricity at a lower price during morning hours?,” he said.
Akin asked whether power plants that claimed malfunctions at their facilities went offline to force the government to hike prices.
Turkey’s electricity production is mostly privatised. Private companies produce 80% of the country’s electricity.
Electricity generation from Turkey's hydro dams was down 30% in January-July, accounting for 20% of overall generation compared to 32% a
44 TURKEY Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com