Turkey mulls getting power from Balkans

Neşe Karanfil ANKARA - Hürriyet

In search for filling its energy gap, Turkey has been in talks with Romania over transferring electricty via submarine cables.

Turkey is in talks with Romania and Bulgaria over providing electricity through submarine power cables in a bid to feed the soaring energy need in the Istanbul and Thrace regions.

The Turkish government has pushed the start button for two separate projects with two countries, mulling to transfer a total of 2,800 megawatts (MW) of electricity power. The Turkish Energy Ministry has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will allow the setting up of an alternative facility for the exchange of electricity between the two countries, including via a submarine cable during Energy Minister Taner Yıldız’s Bucharest visit in late January.

As part of the project that the officials have begun to discuss, Turkey aims to transfer 1,000 MW of power via 450-kilometer-long submarine cables. Energy transfer companies of both sides, The Turkish Electricity Transmission Company (TEİAŞ) and Transelektrika Sides, have reportedly agreed to continue working on a detailed feasibility study until November.

The second project that involves Bulgaria into the network, foresees the establishment of an electricity transmission line that will carry 1,800-MW power from Romania to Bulgaria, to be transferred to Turkey then.

Bulgaria is Turkey’s top electricity provider, as recent trade data released by the state-run Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) revealed that more than half of the Turkey’s electricity imports were accounted for by its neighboring country.

Turkey imported over 2.5 billion-KW power from Bulgaria in 2013, paying more than $180.3 million in return.