Hot weather and increasing industrial usage led the electricity consumption record of all time.

Turkey hit a historic electricity consumption record on July 3 with 927.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, Energy and Natural Resources Ministry official told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

Turkey's previous electricity consumption record was 905.7 million kilowatt hours on August 10, 2016.

The increasing industrial production capacity as well as extremely hot weather led to Turkey's power consumption record earlier than expected.

"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 ministry official noted.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak had announced that Turkey would complete investments of $18 billion in the distribution system along with $12 billion in the country's transmission system between the period 2016 and 2020.

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

No electricity interruption

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

Turkey's electricity generation power plants are generally located in the eastern part of Turkey. Thus, electricity needs to be carried from the east of the country to the west - a situation that requires stronger and healthier transmission and distribution lines.

The ministry planned investments of $30 billion for the electricity sector to have a better system that would ensure continuous supply especially at peak times.

Electricity consumption grows 3.7 percent in 1H17

Furthermore, 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.

Wind and solar power will be the cheapest form of power generation in every G20 country by 2030 at the latest, a new Greenpeace Germany report said on Wednesday.

The study also found that in about half of the G20 countries, renewable energy has been either cheaper or equal in price to electricity generated from coal or nuclear power plants since 2015.

Wind farms already generated the cheapest form of electricity in 2015 in large parts of Europe, South America, the U.S., China and Australia, according to the report.

"Due to rapid technical progress and falling prices, in 2030 solar energy will be so cheap that it will be even cheaper than wind power in many G20 countries," the report estimates.

Storage technologies can play a key role in the transition towards sustainability by providing complementary flexibility to solar and wind resources, the report points out.

The group of twenty is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies founded in 1999. The upcoming G20 summit will be the twelfth meeting that will take place in Hamburg, Germany between July 7 and 8.

The association for electricity distribution system operators, EDSO for Smart Grids, and the European network of transmission operators for electricity, ENTSO-E, commit join forces on speeding up the smartening of the electricity system at INNOGRID2020+ taking place betweeen June 26-27.

“This week at INNOGRID2020+, we showed it was technically possible to have neighbours save money and cut emissions by trading electricity produced from their solar panels with one another. But how do we go from pilot projects to large scale deployment?” asks Laurent Schmitt, ENTSO-E Secretary General was quoted in a written statement.

Roberto Zangrandi, EDSO for Smart Grids’ Secretary General, stated that electricity networks are the real backbone of a digital and smarter energy system.

“They are the key enablers of all this, as flexibility will be needed at all levels, both transmission and distribution, and especially customers’. Customers are the ones that will benefit the most, by being able to use their generation and their flexibility when and where it creates the most value,” Zangrandi said.

EDSO for Smart Grids and ENTSO-E puts consumer empowerment, active system and data management on their agenda and they will intensify their cooperation on these with other European DSO associations and all involved stakeholders, said in the statement.

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Kaynak : teias.gov.tr