Turkey hits historic electricity consumption record

By Nuran Erkul

ANADOLU AGENCY (AA) - Turkey broke its daily electricity consumption record on Monday, consuming 927.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, an Energy Ministry official said Wednesday.

The previous high for daily electricity consumption was 905.7 million kilowatt hours on Aug. 10, 2016.

Increased industrial production capacity as well as extremely hot weather led to high levels of power consumption, the official said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

"The necessary electricity investments, especially in distribution and transmission systems, have been completed and Turkey managed to meet the record consumption without any problem or any cuts," the official said.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak previously announced that Turkey would complete a $18 billion investment in the electricity distribution system, along with $12 billion for the country's transmission system between 2016 and 2020.

Turkey's 21 private electricity distribution companies are handling the $18 billion investment while the Turkish Electricity Transmission Company (TEIAS) is responsible for transmissions.

"This was the first occasion that there was no need for cuts, so that neither consumers nor the industry were badly impacted," the official said.

Turkey's electricity generation power plants are generally located in eastern Turkey, requiring strong and well-maintained transmission and distribution lines to take power to the west.

The ministry has planned $30 billion in investment for the electricity sector to ensure continuous supply, especially at peak times.

Turkey's electricity consumption grew by 3.7 percent in the first six months of 2017. Total consumption during that period increased to 138.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity compared to 133.3 billion kilowatt-hours for the same period of 2016, TEIAS data showed.

The highest daily consumption was recorded on June 30 with 886.3 million kilowatt-hours due to excessive air conditioning use on one of the hottest days of the year.

The lowest consumption came on June 25 with 554.3 million kilowatt-hours when Turkey celebrated the first day of the Ramadan Feast, when the majority of industries in the country were not functioning.