Turkish media have misrepresented the process to recover refunds on charges on consumer' electricity bills for losses of electricity in order to drag the country into chaos, Energy Market Regulatory Authority’s president said Tuesday.
Turkey’s Court of Appeal ruled recently that charges on electricity bills for transmission losses can be compensated through a legal process if consumers sue. The decision paved the way for consumers to sue their distribution companies for repayment of the amount charged so far in their bills for transmission costs. The court ruled that the charges for distribution losses could not be raised by the distribution companies involved.
Electricity distribution companies insist that such collections are legal taking into consideration the agreement made between the companies and the state when electricity distribution was privatized. The distribution companies also claim that instead of the application of civil law, regulatory law should apply to such cases.
Turkey suffers from 15 percent loss in electricity across the country while private power distribution firms are attempting to reduce this number as much as possible. Most of the loss occurs from illicit domestic use of electricity. Every electricity bill in Turkey has around 10-15 percent distribution loss charges included.
'There is not a country with an electricity system which does not face transmission and distribution losses,' the president of EMRA, Mustafa Yilmaz told The Anadolu Agency, AA, at the Energy Markets Summit in Ankara.
Yilmaz, stating that EMRA formed a balanced structure in electricity between producers and consumers, said “We work with empathy. We need to be just in energy, we need to look at both sides. If there is injustice, there will not be peace. If there is no peace, there won’t be any production.”
Yilmaz also said that, although there is an oversupply in electricity, there is a great interest from foreign investors in Turkey's energy sector. He added that they are very happy that investors choose Turkey and he stressed that foreign investors would be attracted more if the regulatory authority remains independent.
'The investors trust Turkey's future,' Yilmaz said and added, 'Turkish energy production and distribution companies are meeting with foreign companies and foreign investors are coming to our country.'
By Ata Ufuk Seker and Nihan Cabbaroglu
Anadolu Agency
auseker@aa.com.tr