Electricity production and consumption in Turkey broke records. The intense demand experienced in July pushed electricity consumption to its highest level. Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar announced this at the Turkish Wind Energy Congress in Izmir.

Electricity demand surges to record levels in July

Bayraktar stated that Turkey reached a monthly peak, generating a total of 36.7 billion kWh of electricity in July. He also noted that daily electricity production peaked at 1,250,178 kWh on July 29th. The Minister noted that Turkey, with 349 TWh of electricity production, will account for 1.1 percent of the global electricity production of over 30,000 TWh by 2024.

Minister Bayraktar stated that electricity consumption, which used to increase in winter, is now breaking records in the summer months due to the widespread use of air conditioning. According to Bayraktar, Turkey’s electricity demand will triple within the next 30 years, reaching 1,000 TWh.

To meet this increase, resources such as Black Sea gas and nuclear energy are needed in addition to renewable energy. In this context, the goal is to build small modular reactors with a capacity of at least 5 GW within the next 30 years.

As of the end of July, installed electrical capacity exceeded 120,000 megawatts. 61 percent of this, or 73,477 megawatts, comes from renewable energy sources. Bayraktar stated that wind and solar power installed capacity, which was almost zero in 2002, has now reached 37,118 megawatts, and their share of installed capacity has increased to 31 percent.

Last May, a total of 6,182 electricity generation plants were commissioned in 81 provinces. Thanks to these investments, 12.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions are being prevented each year and approximately $1.3 billion in savings are being achieved from natural gas imports.

Production is being carried out from a natural gas field discovered in the Black Sea five years ago, meeting the needs of 4 million households. Bayraktar stated that there are plans to increase production. Investments in Turkey’s gas infrastructure aim to store 12 billion cubic meters of gas, equivalent to 20 percent of Turkey’s annual demand, by 2030, and to increase regasification capacity fivefold.