Power prices jump radically on day of natural gas cuts

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Electricity market is highly exposed to the natural gas flow to Turkey as 53 percent of the imported goes to power plants.

Electricity prices hit 2 Turkish Liras per kilowatt hour, up from 10 kuruş to 16 kuruş on average days in the open market. The increase was due to tight supplies as natural gas power plants receive less gas while the total gas supply barely meets the peak demand of households and industries, according to Reuters.
A lira is 100 kuruş.

The supply deficit in gas put wholesale electricity firms in a difficult situation, as many firms producing electricity, could not provide the contractual amount of electricity to their customers. “Most of those firms made a total loss of 10 million liras in just one day. They could not provide electricity to their customers as they could not produce it themselves. So they had to procure it from the open market at higher prices,” said Obahan Obaoğlu, the manager of the Electricity Producers Association, adding that prices calmed down to 16 kuruş as of Feb. 13.

Turkey faces a very serious gas crisis, said Önder Karaduman, the head of the association, according to Anatolia news agency, pointing to supply and demand disequilibrium in the domestic market.

“Turkey’s daily gas consumption has hit 180 million cubic meters. But even if all the gas contracts and underground stores are employed at full capacity, the supply can only provide 170 million cubic meters of gas to the market,” he said, adding that the gas crisis will turn into an electricity crisis if immediate action is not taken, he added.

“The shortage in gas supply is not reflected in citizens’ [consumption],” said Energy Minister Taner Yıldız yesterday, according to Anatolia news agency. The conditions were abnormal, but there were no planned cuts in gas flow, he said.