Turkey's Electricity Market Current Situation and Alternative Policy Recommendations

Abstract

While electricity markets were in a vertically integrated structure in many countries, it became one of the sectors where neo-liberalization was reflected after 1980. Privatizations aimed to transform the electricity market into a competitive structure. In this study, the stages of the breaking of the monopoly structure in the Turkish electricity market and the gradual reduction of the public's share in the market were discussed. The process is described and based on official data and statistics on the recent situation reached by the electricity sector. The findings reveal that expectations did not meet as a result of privatization in the Turkish electricity market. The increases in retail electricity prices, the excess amount of spare power that is idle due to the excess supply, the production with imported resources when there is the possibility of using domestic resources, and the high share of energy imports in the foreign trade deficit naturally indicate that the expected output as a result of privatization has not been achieved. It reveals that the package of energy policies that take care of resource efficiency and efficiency should be implemented in a short time and long term in domestic electricity production, which is far from rational.

Keywords

• privatization
• regulation
• electric power market
• elektrik enerjisi piyasası
• özelleştirme
• regülasyon