Turkey has announced plans for the installation and operation of its first electricity storage facility with an estimated investment cost of nearly $250 million (TL 3.38 billion).
The facility, which is designed to have an hourly output power of 1,000 megawatts, will be a first for the country.
The company Progresiva Enerji Yatırımları applied for the installation and operation activities of a detached electricity storage facility with an installed capacity of 250 megawatts in the Silivri district of Istanbul province, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported, citing a statement from Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK).
The facilities enable the storage of excess electricity generated during the day, especially from renewable energy sources. The stored electricity helps meet demand by providing power to the grid when production decreases or consumption increases.
The electricity storage units will be established within the licensed generation plants. They are included in the existing generation licenses, within the scope of the regulation on storage in the electricity market, which entered into force last May and began accepting applications on Oct. 21. However, no license is required for electricity storage facilities to be established within the consumption facilities, with a lower limit of 2 megawatts for private electricity storage facilities.
The head of Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK), Mustafa Yılmaz, said that provisions regarding the storage in the Electricity Market License Regulation and other legislation were added to facilitate the effectiveness of the storage regulation.
"Companies that have licenses or companies that want to obtain a license will not have any problems when adding storage systems to their projects. The storage facilities will help to further increase the capacity of clean energy resources, which currently account for more than half of Turkey's electricity installed capacity," said Yılmaz, adding that Turkey's energy sector will also consider applications from developed countries to provide network flexibility and application areas.
The company has also applied for a supply license to conduct wholesale and retail sales throughout the country.
