Turkey to increase border capacity with Greece, Bulgaria

Turkey’s electricity interconnection with Greece and Bulgaria is to increase by 100MW at the beginning of next year, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) said on Thursday (31st October).
The country’s import capacity will increase to 650MW, while exports will be raised to 500MW, following a decision taken by ENTSO-E’s regional group, which met at the continental Europe plenary meeting on 16 October.
ENTSO-E said the increase was subject to the implementation of special protection schemes in two areas of Turkey to confine potential interruptions within the country.
Last month ENTSO-E said Turkey’s trial interconnection with the European electricity grid would be extended by up to another year to allow the Turkish grid operator TEIAS to complete a series of issues related to technical, security and data flow management.
TEIAS has been asked to operate the system in line with the EU’s third energy package, which mandates transparent data flows.
The TSO will also have to improve infrastructure, carry out technical work that includes the completion of voltage converters in southeastern Turkey and implement online security analysis.
A spokeswoman from ENTSO-E said the one-year extension could be reduced to six months.
Earlier this summer TEIAS increased the border capacity following positive results reported during the third stage of the trial period.
Before the increase Turkey imported 400MW from Bulgaria and Greece, but electricity imports increased to 550MW this summer. Conversely, Turkey raised its exports to Bulgaria and Greece from 300MW to 412MW.
Bulgaria accounts for two-thirds of the import and export flows, and Greece for one-third.
Once Turkey completes the trial interconnection that started in September 2010, flows could be increased to 1GW, according to a scenario by TEIAS.
(THE ICIS HEREN REPORTS - EDEM 17212 / 31 October 2013)