23rd International Energy & Environment Fair & Conference (ICCI 2017) brought the energy sector together in Istanbul.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of ICCI 2017, Fatih Donmez, Undersecretary of Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, said that they see renewables as a chance for transformation of Turkey. Donmez said, Turkey is not going to produce the entire energy from coal, but put the most efficient coal fields into use.

Fatih Donmez underlined that one of the key performance indicators that the Ministry will look for is going to be indigenousness in technology and employment.He said, the first tender in solar power was held with Renewable Energy Resources Area Project (YEKA) model and the offers will be received in the wind energy too.

“Important progress achieved in domestic resources”

Ziya Altunyaldiz, Chairman of Industry, Trade, Energy, Natural Resources Information and Technology Commission in Turkish Grand National Assembly said, Turkish energy sector have been developing rapidly.

Saying that the country is in the effort of providing the energy demand from domestic resources in a continuous way, Altunyaldiz underlined that important progress have been achieved with 49 percent domestic resources in electricity.

Altunyaldız said that, they aim to export Turkish renewable energy technology to the countries of the region and have contribution to the economy.

“Wind power capacity increased by 300 times”

Mustafa Yilmaz, Chairman of Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) stated that Turkey’s installed capacity in electricity is approaching 80 thousand megawatts and the share of the private sector reaches 75 percent.

Underlining that it is not enough, Yilmaz said, new ways of investment opportunities must be searched with environmental sensitivity. He said, along with the incentives provided to renewable sources, there is a great interest to wind, geothermal, water and biomass power generation. Yılmaz said:

"The installed power in wind energy was 19 megawatts in the year of 2000. Today it reached to 6 thousand megawatts. In other words, we increased our wind power by 300 times in 15 years.  We started to take the quick steps in solar energy to use our potential in the best possible way.” Yilmaz added that the energy infrastructure, which is smart grid and smart meter implemented, technologically transformed and sensitive to the environment, will be built too.

Serhat Cecen, Chairman of ELDER - Association of Electricity Distribution System Operators, said after the privatization in electricity distribution sector, the amount of annual investments have increased significantly and reached to 4.5 billion TL ($ 1.2 billion).

Cecen gave information on the development and targets of the electricity distribution sector in his speech in a special session at the ICCI 2017. Cecen underlined that, with the “National Energy Strategy” which Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak announced previously, Turkey has no supply security problem.

He said, with the increase of energy consumption in the world, electricity markets are being restructured and underlined that in the new structure of the market, the main focus is on the customer.

Serhat Cecen, Chairman of ELDER and Yasar Arslan, Vice Chairman of ELDER & Chairman of GAZBIR made important remarks in ICCI 2017.

"There is the need of a predictable market "

Cecen said, "We, as DSOs, are serving 40 million subscribers and 80 million citizens over the last 5 years. The upcoming years, have to be the period which the investments in electricity supply will progress and the infrastructure investments will be completed to provide best quality service.” He continued that there is the need of a predictable market and said, “We are working in harmony with the authority for this subject."

“Non-technical losses will be decreased”

Underlining that, after privatization in electricity distribution sector, the annual investment amounts increased significantly and reached to 4.5 billion TL, he said, technological investments increased too in every distribution region.

“Today, the rate of technical and non-technical losses decreased below 15 percent. When the regions with the highest rate of losses are excluded, Turkey seized the OECD average of 8 percent. In the upcoming period, DSOs in Turkey are going to fight intensively with energy theft. 2020 will be the year that we will reach our targets”, he said.

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been working in Turkey for over seven years and has financed €9 billion in investment in Turkey, said EBRD official

Speaking at the session entitled Regional Sustainable Energy Expansion at Atlantic Council Istanbul Summit, Philip Bennett, the first vice president and head of client services group at the EBRD said that the bank operates in more than 30 countries.

Bennett said, “We have been operating in Turkey for over seven years. In that period, we have financed €9 billion in investment in Turkey, and half of that financing has been channeled to sustainable energy investments.”

Article
Policy and regulation for smart grids in the United Kingdom
By: Peter M. Connor, Philip E. Baker, Dimitrios Xenias, Nazmiye Balta-Ozkan, Colin J. Axon, Liana Cipcigan

“The UK has adopted legal obligations concerning climate change which will place increased stresses on the current ‘traditional’ model of centralised generation. This will include the stimulation of large volumes of intermittent generation, more distributed generation and larger and more variable loads at grid extremities, potentially including large volumes of electric vehicles and heat pumps. Smarter grids have been mooted as a major potential contributor to the decarbonisation of electricity, through facilitation of reduced losses, greater system efficiency, enhanced flexibility to allow the system to deal with intermittent sources and a number of other benefits. This article considers the different policy elements of what will be required for energy delivery in the UK to become smarter, the challenges this presents, the extent to which these are currently under consideration and some of the changes that might be needed in the future.”

Read More…

Source: EMRA

Agenda

23rd International Energy & Environment Fair & Conference
May 03-05, 2017/Istanbul, Turkey

Workshop of Measurement of Customer Satisfaction and "Regulation Examples in European Markets"
May 12, 2017/Ankara, Turkey

Workshop of Supervision of Occupational Health and Safety in Electricity Distribution Sector
May 16, 2017/Meyra Palace Otel, Turkey

International Clean Coal Summit
May 18-19, 2017/Pulman Istanbul Convention Center, Turkey