As of 02.10.2013, everyone will be able to produce his/her own electrical energy in certain amounts. Due to the Regulation on Electrical Energy Production without License which has been entered on 02.10.2013 into force, every residence may produce a certain amount of its electricity and sell the surplus.

With this regulation are the following points intended:

  • to contribute the small production plants to the countries' economy,
  • to provide the electrical energy for consumers and
  • to reduce the loss in electrical energy

According to this regulation, every person or legal entity which is electricity subscriber may establish electricity manufacturing plant without license provided that they are subscribers. Subscribers such as apartment building management which are not real person or legal entity may also not establish such plants. This regulation will be of interest especially to the universities, building complexes and also the big shopping centers.

Application procedure for a connection

Anyone who intends to establish an electricity production plant, shall apply for a connection and for use of the system with the Article 7 stated documents to the related network operator. These documents shall indicate the right of usage of the applicant on the related real property, the right of usage on renewable energy resource (landfill gas, solar and wind energy are exempted) and the technical specifications of the established plant. Applications are evaluated within the first 20 days of the following month. Upon request, a production resource document may be issued to the producers. According to this regulation, the production and consumption plants may be located in the same places. Thereby the accrual of additional costs has been prevented and to make the projects more productive has been provided.

It is also possible to establish a production plant based on renewable energy resource. Principally, electrical energy shall be produced for supply own needs of producers. However, it is also possible to consume the produced electrical energy in other consumption plant of the same person or legal entity. The related network operator determines the surplus energy amounts. This surplus energy is purchased by supplier company for 10 years at the prices according to the Renewable Energy Resources Support Mechanism. The produced net energy amount may be sold to the consumers. Electrical energy which is produced in microcogeneration plants may not be sold to third persons and surplus energy from such plants shall not be given to the other plants.

The usage of domestic products is supported by this regulation. According to the Article 21 of this regulation, the producers may get a financial support from the supplier companies for the domestic product usage and the determination of this amount has been regulated in the same article. However, the term of benefit from this support is limited to five years as from the date of temporal acceptance of the production plant.

Technical Liability and Sale and Purchase of Production Plants

According to Article 14 of the regulation, the real person or legal entity which produce electrical energy is liable for the establishment and operation of plants and work safety. Accordingly, this persons shall employ an operation officer. This officer and the producer are jointly and severally liable for the damages arising from contradiction to the laws concerning the operation of production plants.

Furthermore, the production plants may be assigned to third persons through sale, transfer or another way provided that their temporal acceptance has been issued. These plants may not be transferred without temporal acceptance. The transfer shall be applied to the related network operator and applications are evaluated within 30 days.

It is also possible that a licensed production plant transforms into an unlicensed plant. The terms and principles of such cases has been regulated by Article 30 of the regulation.

With the new legislation of 02.10.2013 the unlicensed electrical energy production limit has been increased from 500 kW to 1000 kW and the application and other procedures have been enabled.

On the one hand, this may be favorable for persons if the establishment costs are high, on the other hand, the energy production costs may be amortized in solar energy if the sunshine duration in Turkey is considered. It will be helpful in the future especially with regard to minimize the dependence of Turkey on the electrical energy import. In conclusion, it can be stated that such advantages in energy production may be very useful especially for decrease of electricity bills and to provide the independence regarding energy import of Turkey.

Copyright Herdem & Co. Attorneys at Law

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