Türkiye’s Licensed Power Output Falls 8.4% in July as Billed Consumption Rises

Generation declines while billed demand increases

Türkiye’s licensed electricity production fell 8.4% year on year in July to 30,230,681 megawatt-hours, according to the Electricity Market Sector Report published by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority, or EPDK. The contraction came despite continued expansion in the country’s licensed generating fleet.

Billed electricity consumption moved in the opposite direction. It increased 1.3% from the same month of the previous year to 27,604,750 megawatt-hours. The figures indicate a narrower gap between licensed generation and billed consumption than would have resulted from parallel growth in both measures, although the two datasets are not directly equivalent because billed demand and generation are recorded on different bases.

The number of electricity consumers rose 2.6% year on year to 52,631,602. Residential consumer accounts increased 2.5%, while the number of agricultural consumers grew 1.5%. Lighting accounts rose 0.6%, and public and private services and other consumer accounts recorded the largest increase, at 14.3%. The number of industrial consumers edged down 0.01%.

Hydropower leads the July generation mix

Hydroelectric plants produced 30% of licensed electricity in July, making hydropower the largest source in the monthly mix. Imported coal accounted for 21.6%, followed by wind at 13.6%, lignite at 12.6%, natural gas at 11.5% and solar power at 3.9%. Geothermal, biomass, hard coal, asphaltite and fuel oil supplied the remaining production.

The composition shows that hydroelectric output carried a larger share of generation than any individual thermal or renewable source. Coal remained significant when imported coal and domestic lignite are considered together, while natural gas contributed slightly more than one-tenth of licensed production. For fuel suppliers and plant operators, the generation mix is important because changes in hydro and wind availability can alter the call on imported coal and natural gas.

Industry remained the largest billed electricity-consuming segment, with a 36.1% share. Public and private services and other subscribers represented 28.2%, while households accounted for 26.2%. Agricultural activity used 8.1% of billed electricity and lighting accounted for 1.3%. The distribution makes industrial demand a central indicator for generators and energy-market participants assessing changes in load.

Licensed capacity reaches 101,029 MW

Türkiye’s licensed installed electricity capacity increased 3.2% year on year to 101,029 megawatts. Natural-gas plants represented approximately 24.4% of the total, followed by reservoir hydropower at 23.6%. Wind accounted for 14.9%, imported-coal plants for 10.4% and lignite plants for 10.1%, with other generating technologies making up the balance.

The simultaneous rise in capacity and decline in monthly output highlights the distinction between available generating assets and actual plant utilization. The EPDK figures do not specify which operational, weather or market factors caused the year-on-year production drop. However, the combination of lower licensed generation, higher billed consumption and a growing customer base will be closely watched by power producers, fuel suppliers and traders evaluating Türkiye’s electricity balance and the potential need for flexible thermal generation.