The Turkish electricity system is growing rapidly, with consumption doubling from 133 Terawatthours (TWh) in 2002 to more than 260 TWh in 2015. As demand will continue to rise, considerable additional generation is required. Strategic governmental plans focus on a mix of coal, nuclear, hydro and renewables. Across the country, excellent solar and wind conditions and vast available areas of land provide attractive conditions for power from wind and solar photovoltaics.
Developing the grid in line with demand and supply growth and integrating growing shares of variable renewables into the system is a major challenge that the transmission system operator TEIAS needs to deal with – as do many operators around the globe. Without a resilient system, any policy to drive renewables growth is bound to fail. Assessing how larger shares of renewables can be securely integrated in the power system, is therefore key. It will strengthen the understanding of challenges and solutions for developing a power system capable of dealing with the particularities of variable generation in Turkey, both regarding the required capacities, operational practices and the adequate regulatory framework.
Consequently, in this project we will model in detail the effects of different (renewables) generation investments on the Turkish transmission grid, assess existing and potential options for increasing the flexibility of the system and reducing required transmission investment, and provide proposals for regulatory amendments.
The project brings together Turkish consultancy EPRA and IAEW Aachen, combining profound knowledge and a detailed model of the Turkish grid with wide knowhow on renewables integration in Germany and beyond. The analysis is a first step in supporting the Turkey’s sustainable energy system development, that will be followed by others, addressing a variety of issues identified in cooperation with local stakeholders.