Impact of Grid Management on Wind Energy In Turkey A Case Study - The Marmara Region

Turkey has one of the largest and fastest growing populations within the EU-27 Member States and Candidate Countries. This population growth comes with a rapid urbanization and high demand for electricity. However, Turkey's conventional energy resources are limited and this high energy demand has resulted in a high dependency on energy imports; primarily oil and natural gas. At present, around 30 per cent of the total energy demand is being met by domestic resources, while the rest originates from a diversified import-portfolio. Turkey, on the other hand, is blessed with ample renewable energy resources such as wind energy and solar energy. This paper makes a quick review of Turkish Energy outlook and emphasizes the importance of renewable energies for Turkey. Afterwards it analyzes the new era of Renewable Energy in Turkey, through the analysis of the recent advances in the legal infrastructure, latest agreements and projects for the advancement of renewable energy sector in the country. It is accepted that the most important renewable resource of the country is the wind energy and this paper concentrates on the wind energy potential in general. One of the most significant criteria for the feasibility of the wind related investments is the grid connectivity. Since Turkey acts like a network hub between the Europe and Asia, the quality and the management of the grid and the grid connectivity of the renewable projects is important not only for this country, but for EU member states as well. Because, the Marmara region has the highest wind energy potential and it is the western most region of the country, this paper concentrates on this region as a case study. The final part of the paper analyzes the grid connectivity to Europe, EU directives and their impact on Turkey's grid management.