Turkey's electricity consumption in 2018 up by 0.75 pct

By Murat Temizer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's electricity consumption increased by 0.75 percent in 2018 compared to 2017, according to Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Ministry on Wednesday.

The country's power consumption was 292.17 billion kilowatt-hours in 2018 compared to 289.97 billion kilowatt-hours in 2017.

Turkey produced 293.78 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2018 -- a production increase of 1.11 percent, up from 290.55 gigawatt-hours in 2017.

Turkey's electricity imports from neighboring countries decreased by 9.64 percent and reached 2.46 billion kilowatt-hours compared to 2.72 billion kilowatt-hours in 2017.

In addition, the country's electricity exports to neighboring countries decreased by 6.96 percent to 3.07 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. Electricity exports in 2017 amounted to 3.30 billion kilowatt-hours.

Turkey's total installed power capacity was 85.2 thousand megawatts by the end of 2017 and is estimated to be around 88.50 thousand megawatts by the end of 2018.

According to official figures, the installed capacity of the country reached 88.34 thousand megawatts by the end of November. However, the energy ministry has yet to release data of the installed capacity for the month of December or for 2018 in total.

- Goal: More renewable energy

In 2017, Turkey produced 37 percent of its electricity from natural gas and 33 percent from coal. However, the country aims to increase the share of renewable energy in its production mix.

In line with this goal, Energy and Natural Resources Ministry is continuing with its Renewable Energy Resource Zone Projects (YEKA).

A Siemens Gamesa-Turkerler-Kalyon consortium won the first 1,000-megawatt wind tender offered by YEKA in August 2017. The tender stipulated that the winning consortium would construct a wind turbine factory in Turkey over the 21 months starting from the signing of the agreement.

The second YEKA for wind projects was announced in November 2018 with a deadline for applications set for March 7, 2019.

Furthermore, three solar YEKA tenders will be held with a cumulative capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW) for three locations in Turkey, namely Sanliurfa, Hatay and Nigde provinces, with 500 MW, 200 MW and 300 MW of capacity, respectively.

The ceiling price per kilowatt-hour has been set at $6.50 and the deadline for bid submissions is by 12.00 noon local time on Jan. 31, 2019.

Turkey held a 1,000-megawatt solar Renewable Energy Resource Zones (YEKA) tender in 2017 with a winning bid of $6.99 for one megawatt-hour and $3.48 for 1,000-megawatts.