Turkish electricity distribution companies made TL 3.7 billion investment which is above the determined investment ceiling in 2016. This year, the sector plans to invest TL 5 billion, again above the determined investment budget.

ELDER Chairman Serhat Cecen, answered the questions of energy correspondents. He stated that the electricity distribution companies will invest more than TL 18 billion between the years of 2016 -2020. Cecen underlined that this is the highest investment figures that the sector ever made.

Explaining that DSOs made TL 3.7 billion investment only to electricity grid infrastructure last year, Cecen said,

"Investments are the first and foremost step in improving the quality of our electricity distribution service. We know that it is not possible to achieve customer satisfaction without improving service quality. For this reason, we invest 3 times more than the period when this service was given by public sector.”

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INCREASED BY 53%
Reminding the customer satisfaction survey which was announced in ELDER 10th Sectorial Meeting by Berat Albayrak, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Cecen said, the results have increased the motivation of DSOs. "Targets for 2017 are challenging, but we are certain that we will reach them," Cecen said.

He underlined that the sector is carrying out their investments with maximum effort in order to increase customer satisfaction to 80%.

"The consumers expressing satisfaction with electricity distribution services increased by 53%. This shows that we are on the right track. I would like to state that the regions with lowest level of satisfaction are also the ones having intensive fighting with non-technical losses.

We always emphasize that our path is long. We will continue to do everything that is needed for providing uninterrupted and qualified electricity distribution service. The higher the quality of service, the higher the satisfaction of our citizens. "

Helsinki airport which is Finland’s largest airport, will generate 10 percent of total electricity consumption with solar power.
According to the Finnish airport's service company, Finavia, they have decided to speed up their ambitious climate programme and aim to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions caused by the operations of all of the company's 21 airports to zero by 2020.
The company said that, Finavia is among the first European airports to invest in a solar power plant to be located at Helsinki Airport. The construction of the power plant is underway on the roof of terminal 2, and it is expected to produce energy starting from late summer 2017. The entire system, with a total output of more than 500 kWp, will be completed in 2019, and it will be the largest airport solar power plant in the Nordic countries.
PLANT WILL PRODUCE 10% OF THE POWER
“Finavia is committed to working hard to prevent our airports from increasing their carbon dioxide emissions in 2020” says Kari Savolainen, CEO of Finavia. Solar power will produce nearly 10 % of the power required in the new energy-efficient terminal areas at Helsinki Airport, Savolainen says.
Source: Finavia/ AA

Security researchers at ESET have been analyzing samples of dangerous malware named “Industroyer” which is capable of performing an attack on power supply infrastructure.

According to the ESET research team, the Industroyer malware was likely involved in the December 2016 cyberattack on Ukraine’s power grid that deprived part of its capital, Kiev, of power for over an hour. The researchers discovered that the malware is capable of directly controlling electricity substation switches and circuit breakers. It uses industrial communication protocols used worldwide in power supply infrastructure, transportation control systems, and other critical infrastructure. 

The potential impact may range from simply turning off power distribution, triggering a cascade of failures, to more serious damage to equipment.

WAKE-UP CALL: UKRAINIAN EXAMPLE

ESET Senior Malware Researcher Anton Cherepanov, said, “The recent attack on the Ukrainian power grid should serve as a wake-up call for all those responsible for the security of critical systems around the world. Industroyer’s ability to persist in the system and to directly interfere with the operation of industrial hardware makes it the most dangerous malware threat to industrial control systems since the infamous Stuxnet, which successfully attacked Iran’s nuclear program and was discovered in 2010.”
Source: ESET

Article
Exploring the Determinants of ‘Best Practice’ in Network Regulation: The Case of the Electricity Sector
By: Aoife Brophy Haney and Michael G. Pollitt

In this paper we use a best practice index constructed from the survey responses of regulators in 40 countries to explore the determinants of outcomes in electricity network regulation. We construct a model of explained behaviour where we are particularly interested in understanding the impact of industry setting, political, and economic environments on the degree of best practice regulation. Our results suggest that political and economic institutions as well as the behaviour of regulators in neighbouring countries/states may be important determinants of outcomes; this also leads us to question whether one “best practice” model is in fact applicable to countries with very different political and economic contexts.

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