National Energy 2040 vision will be announced

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar, in his speech at the "1st Innovation, Dissemination and Entrepreneurship Days in the Electricity Distribution Sector" organized in cooperation with the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) and the Electricity Distribution Services Association (Elder), stated that the world is facing the biggest energy crisis of modern times and said that the uninterrupted, reliable and cost-effective supply of energy is not only an economic issue but also a security issue.

Bayraktar explained that Türkiye brought its own oil and natural gas to the economy, expanded its renewable energy capacity, incorporated nuclear energy into the system and used its energy efficiently.

Emphasizing that the common purpose of these studies is to meet Türkiye's energy needs safely and economically, to permanently increase the welfare of citizens by reducing foreign dependency, and to implement policies in line with Türkiye's climate goals, Bayraktar said:

"However, we now know that independence in energy cannot be achieved only by having resources or increasing production capacity. We also need to be able to use the energy we produce at the right time, in the right place and in the most efficient way. For this, we need a strong electrical infrastructure, smart grids, technologies and qualified human resources. Our goal of complete independence in energy requires us to transform the whole system together, from production to transmission, from distribution to consumption."

Stating that we will have to produce more electricity and manage electricity in a more smart, flexible, efficient and digital system in the future, Bayraktar said, "For this reason, we are preparing our energy policies according to the needs of the new world. As the number of solar and wind power plants increases, electric vehicles become widespread and the electricity need of our industry grows, our networks and infrastructure need to keep up with this change. Therefore, we cannot evaluate energy transformation only through power plant investments. We need to develop our transmission and distribution infrastructure, storage capacity, digital technologies and system management ability together. National "We foresee an investment of approximately 100 billion dollars in our electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure within the scope of Energy 2040." he said.

Bayraktar emphasized that electricity distribution, in addition to being a technical service area, is one of the most basic elements that ensure the normal flow of production, development and daily life, and said that the responsibilities of the distribution sector will increase in the coming period.

Pointing out that new industrial zones, growing cities, electric vehicles, rooftop solar energy systems and the development of the digital economy will reveal new needs in distribution networks, Bayraktar said, "It is not possible to meet these needs by simply adding additional lines and transformers to the existing infrastructure. We need to transition our networks to a structure that can monitor real-time, predict demand accurately, respond to malfunctions faster and use existing capacity more efficiently. In other words, the new era in electricity distribution is the era of smarter, more flexible and more durable networks as well as stronger networks." "Digitalization is one of the most important tools of this transformation." made his assessment.

Bayraktar underlined that the development of domestic software and its widespread use throughout the sector is an important part of the energy transformation and said, "We believe that the budgets provided by EMRA to distribution companies for R&D activities make significant contributions to the development and implementation of domestic solutions in the field. In our National Energy 2040 new energy architecture, we want to see domestic software developed and widely used in many areas of our electricity distribution infrastructure and become protected against cyber attacks." he said.

Source: TRT Haber Ekonomi RSS (Open Press / Translated Full Text)