Gradual tariff in gas, electricity consumption introduced

ISTANBUL

The Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) has set the limit in the two-stage electricity billing system as 150 kilowatt-hours.

For more than 38 million households across Turkey, consumption up to 150 kilowatt-hours a month will cost 1.37 Turkish Liras per kilowatt-hour, and consumption above this limit will cost 2.06 liras.

For instance, a household that consumed 150 kilowatt-hours of electricity last month paid 137 liras ($10.3), but this month the bill will increase to 205 liras ($15.4) - an increase of 49.6 percent.

A household that paid 500 liras ($37.5) for electricity in December 2021 is expected to pay at least 1,020 liras ($76.6) this month, because the price of electricity per kilowatt-hour exceeding the threshold of 150 kilowatt-hours has been hiked by 125 percent.

Electricity prices for businesses were also increased by around 127 percent.

In a statement late on Dec. 31, 2021, EPDK cited energy prices soaring globally.

Meanwhile, natural gas prices jumped 25 percent for residential use and 50 percent for industrial use in January, national distributor Botaş said. The price rise was 15 percent for power generators.

Thus, the price of 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas will be 1,860 liras ($139.6) for households, 6,300 liras ($472.9) for large industrial facilites and 5,520 ($414.3) for power stations.

Turkish households will starte consuming local natural gas, which has been discovered in the Black Sea, in the first quarter of 2023, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said on Dec. 31, 201.

Production at Sakarya Gas Field off the shores of the Black Sea province of Zonguldak will peak in 2026, he said.

“As of that date, we will be producing a third of gas consumed in Turkey in this region,” he said, during a visit to the Filyost port natural gas facility construction site in Zonguldak.

In recent years, Turkey imported around 45 billion cubic meters of natural per year paying approximately $12 billion to pipeline suppliers Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, as well as to liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers inclidung the United States, Morocco, Qatar and Nigeria.

In 2021, total natural gas consumption in Turkey is expected to hit 60 billion cubic meters.