In-Depth Review of Energy Efficiency Policies of Turkey

Privatisation in the power and gas sector continues: power distribution company privatisations are completed and generation asset privatisation is ongoing. The privatisation of generation assets has been preceded by a large-scale rehabilitation of power plants, and this process is expected to continue after privatisation. Moreover, most gas distribution companies are privatised as well. The eligible customer limit has been reduced to 5 GWh since January 2013. Also, due to the distribution company privatisations, a process is now in place to reduce theft and losses from 14.6% on average in 2011 to around 12.1% with separate targets for each distribution company in 2015.
The main objective of the Government of Turkey in the field of energy has been to become less dependent on imports for meeting energy demand. To meet this objective, a strategy document was published in 2009 which set targets for 2023: to achieve 30% of power generation from RES and to reduce the share in power generation of natural gas below 30%.
Under the “European Union – Turkey Progress Report 2013” which was concluded as part of the EU accession policy, Turkey’s efforts were in the following areas: security of supply, internal energy market, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and nuclear safety and radiation protection.
International Financial Institutions (IFI) have set up large funds for energy efficiency investments together with renewable energy investments. The size of these funds is impressive with over $3 billion. Currently, the government does not treat energy efficiency projects as a special category of investments.
Concerning energy pricing, Turkey is well on track. The introduction of the Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM) in early 2008 has improved the cost reflectiveness of energy prices considerably. Nevertheless, actual import costs are not always directly reflected in consumer prices as dictated by the APM. Hence, the APM is not always implemented as planned, which leads to temporary price subsidisation.
The government is commended for their work on the EE strategy paper of 2012. This paper has set out seven strategic goals, which are further subdivided into concrete actions and timelines.