EBRD to invest €250M in Turkish energy sector in 2019

ANKARA

Turkey's energy sector has been attracting around €250 million ($280 million) per year from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the bank plans to maintain the same levels of financing in 2019 as well, Managing Director for Sustainable Infrastructure Group at the EBRD said on June 19.       

Nandita Parshad, managing director for Sustainable Infrastructure Group of the EBRD, had an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency in Istanbul on the EBRD's future plans for Turkish energy sector.      

To date, the EBRD has invested directly about €1.6 billion in the energy sector in Turkey in 22 cases with loans, equity and bonds.       

Parshad stated that the average amount the bank invested in Turkey's energy sector is €250 million.     

This year, the EBRD has already invested $100 million in a stake of Içtaş Sürdürülebilir Enerji Yatırımları, the renewable energy arm of Turkey's IC Energy Holding, she said. The firm owns a portfolio of 10 hydropower plants with a total capacity of 400 megawatts.     

"With the injection of the EBRD funds, it now plans to invest in wind farms and solar projects with a combined capacity of up to 250 megawatts. Equity is a great way for us to support the further growth of renewable energy in Turkey," Parshad said.      

She added that the EBRD investment in Içtaş will also partly finance the recent privatization of Kadıncık hydropower plant, in Mersin, in the south of Turkey.      

Içtaş won the privatization tender of Kadıncık hydropower plants with 126 megawatts in total. "So that there will be more private sector players in Turkish power generation sector, which is a good thing for more competition paving the way for lower power prices and diversification of supplies," Parshad said.     

"We are also a shareholder in Akfen Renewables. This is an excellent example of how the combination of debt and equity can boost a company and the entire sector.

The EBRD became a shareholder in Akfen Renewables in 2015 and provided a separate financing package of $102 million in September 2018. With this investment, we financed the construction of four windfarms and nine solar projects with a total capacity of 327 megawatts," Parshad explained adding that it was the largest single financing of a renewables portfolio.