Written by: Salma El-Sakka
The Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority has introduced comprehensive regulatory amendments regarding the electricity sector, including unlicensed electricity generation facilities, remote control mechanisms in emergencies, in addition to penalties and settlement operations in the grid.
Amendments to Connection and System Use Regulations
The new amendments approved by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority were published in the Official Gazette, stipulating that consumers who establish electricity storage facilities with an installed capacity exceeding the contract capacity must install an automatic power control system and a power outage system to prevent exceeding the permitted limits and avoid pumping energy into the distribution network without prior permission.
The new rules also included precise financial and insurance obligations for users, including the submission of bank letters of guarantee or cash guarantees, and defining clear mechanisms for addressing any deficiency in the value of guarantees or refunding surpluses to those committed to paying system use bills regularly over past periods.
New controls for storage facility licenses
The amendments included the regulation of electricity storage facility licenses, where the power of energy storage units was taken into account when evaluating license applications rather than capacity alone, while prohibiting supply license holders from using designations that suggest an affiliation with local distribution companies.
Clear rules were established for the refund of guarantees submitted for license applications concurrently with the entry of storage facilities into the full operation phase of the approved units.
Updating Demand Response Services
Regarding additional services in the electricity market, the rules for calculating payments for entities managing demand response services were updated, alongside establishing precise performance standards for compliance with operating instructions and avoiding penalties associated with failing to meet required capacities, while postponing deadlines for certain technical tests and regulatory certifications.
