Turkey will need to attract about $100 billion worth of investment in the next 10 years to avoid bottlenecks in the energy industry, according to the president of the Energy Strategic Business Unit at Haci Omer Sabanci Holding.
Mehmet Gocmen, president of Turkey’s largest conglomerate, said that this can be achieved primarily by liberalizing the market.
“The low energy prices present a historical opportunity for the liberalization of the market in the next 1.5 years, as lifting the tariffs and the subsidies will not lead to higher costs for the producer,” Gocmen said in an interview with Anadolu Agency.
“It may even be possible to lift the cross subsidies. A free market will appeal to foreign investors, presenting a transparent environment,” he added.
According to Gocmen, Turkey needs a “road map” to lure investors in a competitive global environment, with almost zero interest rates in Western countries and with the U.S. being on a fast economic growth trend.
“Turkey’s new 'story' in energy has to be liberalization, increasing efficiency and introducing new technologies,” he added.
- More investment in renewables after 2020
Since electricity privatization in 2013, most investments in the industry concentrated on preventing seepage. However after 2020, investment will concentrate on renewable energy production and on building smart grid networks rather than conventional energy, according to Gocmen.
“There will be more resources available to put in new technologies as networks develop more after privatization and start moving towards meeting future needs, rather than emergency needs,” he said.
In renewable energy, Turkey must move towards implementing the infrastructure for smaller and self-sufficient production units instead of relying on large power plants, according to Gocmen.
“The more than one-million summer houses in Turkey, universities, hospitals and shopping malls could each become units that produce energy for themselves,” he said.
“These smaller and more flexible units should be able to get energy from the network if their production is low and provide the network if high. A proper network management system should also be applied to achieve this.” Gocmen added.
- Enerjisa to invest up to $3.4 billion in 5 years
Enerjisa, Sabanci Holding’s joint venture with E.ON, a global energy supplier based in Dusseldorf, plans to invest between 8 billion Turkish liras ($2.7 billion) and 10 billion liras ($3.4 billion) in the industry in the next five years, Gocmen said.
The company will continue to put in between 1 billion liras ($342 million) and 1.5 billion liras ($514,000) in the distribution segment every year.
“We are preparing to be part of a growth potential which will unfold as the industry becomes more liberalized,” he said.
Enerjisa, which has electricity generation, distribution, trading and sales as its main lines of business, provides distribution services to approximately 20 million users. Its power plants have an installed capacity of about 3,600 megawatts.
By Sibel Akbay
Anadolu Agency
sibel.akbay@aa.com.tr