Power outages hit several provinces

ISTANBUL

Scores of provinces across Turkey on Aug. 2 experienced power outages that authorities say were due to high demand, supply and transmission problems.

The power outages hit a number of districts in Istanbul, Ankara, the country’s third largest city İzmir on the Aegean coast, the northwestern industrial city of Bursa as well as Mersin, which recently also suffered from wildfires.

There were reports of power outages in other large cities, such as Konya, Adana, Gaziantep and Hatay.

The Energy and Natural Resources Ministry said in a statement that demand for electricity soared recently because of the temperatures, which have been above seasonal normal and there also have been power supply problems recently.

“Electricity consumption in the country climbed to record levels in the past couple of weeks,” the ministry said, adding that the use of air conditioning also increased because of the unusual hot weather.

While demand has picked, electricity generation declined at windpower plants and hydropower plants because of drought, according to the ministry’s statement.

“The electricity infrastructure continues to work at full capacity to meet the increased demand,” the statement added.

The ministry also noted that during the day emergency teams were dispatched to the regions which experienced power outages and the problems were fixed and power supply was restored.

Meanwhile, Uludağ Elektrik Dağıtım (UEDAŞ), which distributes electricity in Bursa, said on Twitter that power outage in the province was due to problems related to transmission lines.

Some of the power outages that occurred in the Aegean region was due to maintenance work, said the electricity distribution company in that part of the country.