Turkey’s energy watchdog has approved electricity storage regulations that will enable investors to build electricity storage facilities to accommodate more power from intermittent renewable energy sources.

The new legislation covering electricity storage facilities will come into effect after publication in the Official Gazette, Mustafa Yılmaz, head of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) told Anadolu Agency (AA) Thursday.

Market players will now be able to build storage facilities within their power plants, consumption facilities, or independent storage facilities based on this new legislation, paving the way for the integration of storage facilities into the power grid.

Yılmaz further explained that market players could benefit from more competitive pricing by buying power and storing it when prices are low, and selling power when prices are high.

Electricity storage facilities will enable the development of a more reliable and secure power system, especially with the growth in output from clean energy sources such as wind or solar, which generate electricity intermittently depending on weather conditions.

As the country aims to add at least 1,000 megawatts of solar and 1,000 megawatts of wind capacity annually, these electricity storage facilities are important in maximizing clean energy capacity.

According to Yılmaz, this in turn will help Turkey increase this capacity more rapidly.

Turkey's current installed capacity is around 97 gigawatts, of which renewables account for approximately half.

Turkey deployed approximately 4,900 megawatts of renewable power capacity last year without almost any fossil fuel power capacity.

With the EPDK's newly approved regulation, the electricity storage facilities to be built within a licensed power plant will be included in the plant’s license. Facilities at an electricity consumption facility will be license-exempt.

However, the EPDK will require a supply license for independently built electricity storage facilities on the condition that the lower storage limit will be 2 megawatts.

Additionally, the regulation will allow universities, technology development centers and industrial zones to deploy a capacity of 1 megawatt in storage facilities to use in R&D projects.