Turkey’s energy and natural resources minister, Taner Yıldız, told reporters Tuesday in Ankara that he did not expect an increase in household electricity prices following recent problems in the natural gas supply to the country.
Yıldız’s remarks arrive amid speculation that the price of electricity could see a hike, as most electricity plants switched to oil following a decline in the inflow of gas from two of Turkey’s major providers, Azerbaijan and Iran, last week. This caused an increase in the input cost of electricity generation. The price per kilowatt hour (kWh) for wholesale electricity sold by the Turkish Electricity Production Company (TEİAŞ) to distributors — normally around Kr 20-25 — swelled to as high as TL 2 at the Market Financial Settlement Center (PMUM) on Monday this week. Yıldız acknowledged a problem in meeting the surging demand for natural gas,
but he also said that electricity prices would not be affected by this. “We believe wholesale electricity prices will be fixed at reasonable levels. … There is no threat of a price hike,” he explained. The minister said that Turkey also recently experienced a decline in the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), but added that the government “kept things under control.”
Natural gas accounts for 47 percent of Turkey’s electricity generation, according to data from the Energy Ministry — a larger share than any other source of electricity in the country. Turkey’s current natural gas consumption is 192 million cubic meters per day, which is above the seasonal average due to the particularly cold weather over the past few weeks. Last year Turkey’s natural gas consumption averaged 171 million cubic meters per day during the winter.
