The Turkish Electricity Transmission Corporation (TEIAŞ) signed on Monday a $750 million financing deal with the World Bank, aimed at strengthening Türkiye's electricity transmission network, the officials said.
The "Transforming Transmission System" loan project agreement, signed on the sidelines of the 11th Energy Efficiency Forum and Exhibition in Istanbul under the auspices of Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, aims to support the Transmission System Transformation Project.
The deal was signed by TEIAŞ General Manager Orhan Kaldırım and World Bank Türkiye Director Humberto Lopez.
The project focuses on three key areas, including reinforcing the transmission grid, digitalizing system operations and management, and enhancing TEIAŞ's technical capacity through training and assistance.
TEIAŞ and the World Bank are also in talks for additional financing agreements to further strengthen Türkiye's transmission infrastructure.
Speaking to the press after the signing ceremony, Bayraktar said that during last week's meeting in New York, they met with representatives from the World Bank.
"The World Bank and international financial institutions have a particularly strong interest in Türkiye's energy infrastructure, specifically its electricity and natural gas infrastructure," he said.
Noting Türkiye's central location and efforts in the renewable energy sector, he also said its "targets are quite compelling."
"Last year, our President (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) stated in Baku that we aim to reach 120,000 megawatts (MW) of installed wind and solar power capacity by 2035. Therefore, we need 8,000 to 10,000 megawatts of new power plants every year to achieve this," he said.
Bayraktar also emphasized the need to expand Türkiye's grid infrastructure in line with the increase in installed electricity capacity.
"As we announced last year, we plan to invest $28 billion in electricity transmission infrastructure by 2035. Among these, infrastructure investments, in particular, are attracting considerable interest from the World Bank and international financial institutions. Therefore, we are intensively negotiating with financial institutions from both Asia and the West on such projects. We will likely see new examples of these in the coming period," he pointed out.
