The budget for research and development (R&D) projects carried out by electricity and natural gas distribution companies in the past three years, to improve technology in the energy sector and increase the quality of service, has exceeded TL 111 million ($30.21 million).

According to information compiled from officials at the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA), electricity and natural gas distribution companies have applied to the entity for 364 R&D projects since 2014, 137 of which have been accepted.

Electricity distribution companies prepared 118 of these projects and 19 were done by natural gas distribution companies. Electricity and natural gas distribution companies have completed 32 of the EMRA-approved projects.

The budget for R&D projects accepted in the last three years has reached TL 111.4 million, while the budget size of accepted projects in electricity and natural gas stood at TL 102.8 million and TL 8.6 million, respectively.

EMRA officials say that the aim is to increase Turkey's electricity and natural gas distribution to meet international quality standards through R&D projects, adding that projects to develop technology for the operation of distribution systems and to increase productivity with the rate of domestic facilities are also being supported.

In this context, projects are being developed in areas such as reducing the illegal use of electricity, identifying failures in advance, improving customer satisfaction, increasing the health and safety of employees and developing action plans to be made in case of emergency.

EMRA allocated an R&D budget of TL 210 million to electricity distribution companies for the 2016-2020 period and TL 10 million to natural gas distribution companies for the 2017- 2021 period.