12/28/2016
Important Statement by GAZBİR President Arslan
"BOTAŞ deduction on power plants by up to 90 percent is throwing these power plants into great distress, it may lead to bankruptcy for them.- EMRA should require ceiling prices. Otherwise, the situation will result in some incurring losses and others profiting unreasonably”...
Turkish Natural Gas Distribution Companies Association (GAZBİR) President Yaşar Arslan, answered questions regarding the natural gas sector and made important statements. Arslan stated that the BOTAŞ deduction on power plants by up to 90 percent is throwing these power plants into great distress and it may lead to bankruptcy for them. Reminding that the distribution grid in Turkey has a capacity of 200 million m3 per day whereas recent daily natural gas consumption reached 215 million m3. President Arslan stated that "If the limitation on the power plants was not there this would have put the system in more distress. If the power plants were not limited the daily consumption would have reached over 240 million m3 by now. With the grid administration policies implemented with this in mind, we currently have a daily consumption of 215 million m3. Natural gas power plants consume 50 million m3 natural gas daily under normal market conditions. Currently, this is down to almost 20 million m3 daily.” 'Power plants may bankrupt': Stating that the daily consumption in Turkey during the last months of the year in Turkey usually comes to 6-7 m3 per residence, Arslan said that during the winter months, along with natural gas daily electricity consumption increases as well and the increasing demand is reflected on the prices. Arslan added: "These increases cause losses to power plants generating electricity from natural gas. This is a situation which may lead to bankruptcy for them. We can’t disregard the responsibility of these power plants using natural gas to generate electricity to their own clients. These power plants are forced to purchase expensive energy from the system to meet their responsibilities. This is something the plants cannot foresee or prevent and EMRA should implement a ceiling for these prices. Otherwise this will result in some incurring heavy losses and others profiting unreasonably. This is not ideal for a sustainable market structure. Natural gas supply directly affects prices of electricity. A healthy pricing in the electricity market requires free natural gas importation and pricing to be developed in trade centres in accordance with the free market conditions. " 'New investments will alleviate the problem”: Arslan, emphasising the critical importance of the investments to be made at the natural gas supply point, stated that “Investments to be commissioned in 2017 carry critical importance in meeting the peak daily demand. We have some problems associated with the fact that the new facilities and transmission lines to be commissioned anew will only be available mid-winter. However, this problem will be more moderate for the 2018 winter.” Adding that in order to avoid natural gas supply problems both investment and regulation measures will have to be taken, Arslan stated that "It looks like after 2019 with the new investments most of our problems will be eliminated. We have to sort this issue out in 2017 with more care and with market regulatory measures.” As was reported earlier, with the natural gas coming from Iran decreasing by 1/3 the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources announced that the natural gas provided to the natural gas power plants with purchase guarantee was to be decreased by half which resulted in decrease in electricity generation again by half not only at BOT and Build-Operate power plants but those operated by EÜAŞ as well TEBA:December 14, 2016
Annual Report
