Turkey Energy Profile

TURKEY’S ENERGY PROFILE
With a rapidly growing economy Turkey has become one of the fastest
growing energy markets in the world. Turkey has been experiencing rapid
demand growth in all segments of the energy sector for decades. Recent
forecasts indicate that the growth trend of 6-8 % per year will prevail in the
energy sector in the following years. The primary energy consumption, which
reached around 92 million tons of oil equivalent (toe) in 2006 will rise to 126
million toe in 2010 and 222 million toe in 2020.
The limits of Turkey’s domestic energy sources in light of its growing energy
demand have resulted in dependency on energy imports, primarily of oil and
gas. At present, around 30 % of the total energy demand is being met by
domestic resources, while the rest is being satisfied from a diversified
portfolio of imports. Turkey attaches utmost priority to further diversification
of imports in both type and origin. Exploration and production activities are
also being intensified in this context.
Turkish energy policy has made impressive progress after the Helsinki
Summit of 1999 where Turkey was declared a candidate for accession to the
EU. Turkey attaches great importance to more efficient and rational
functioning of the energy sector for promoting the competitiveness of the
national economy. Substantial progress has been achieved in restructuring and
liberalizing the Turkish electricity and gas markets in pursuance with the EU
Directives for the purpose of integration with the EU Internal Energy Market,
since the enactments of the Electricity and Natural Gas Market Laws in 2001.
With the Petroleum and LPG Market Laws, competition oriented mechanisms
has been put into place.
An independent regulator, The Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA)
has been established to be in charge of regulation and supervision of the
electricity, gas, petroleum and LPG markets.
Concerning renewable energy sources, the Law on the Utilization of
Renewable Energy Sources for the Purposes of Generating Electricity has
been adopted in 2005 for promoting electricity production from the renewable
energy sources in liberalized energy markets. In order to use energy
efficiently, prevent waste, mitigate the burden of energy costs on the
economy, and increase the efficieny in the use of energy resources and to
protect the environment, the Energy Efficiency Law was enacted on 2 May
2007.
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Turkey aims at fullly utilizing its indigenous hard coal and lignite reserves,
hydro and other renewable resources such as wind and solar energy to meet
the demand growth in a sustainable manner. Integration of nuclear energy
into the Turkish energy mix will also be one of the main tools in responding to
the growing electricity demand while avoiding increasing dependence on
imported fuels. Nuclear power plants corresponding to a total installed
capacity of 5000 MW are expected to be commissioned after 2012.