Turkish industry seeks to shrink power bills

Turkey wants to cut industrial sector power bills by launching a project to produce energy savings and by using more efficient motors, the Turkish Industry and Technology Minister announced on Jan. 14

"The energy demands of the Turkish industry have more than doubled over the past 17 years, and this rapid rise will continue in the future," Mustafa Varank told during the energy summit in capital Ankara.

Varank said it is important to make improvements in industrial branches with heavy power demands.

Underlining that 2 million people are employed in some 315 organized industrial zones of Turkey, the minister said that the growth of the industry is directly proportionate to the demand for energy.

Savings target

"We want to raise awareness of the efficiency of electric motors in the industry with a pilot project," he said. He added if the project proceeds as planned, companies will boost their competitive edge.

Varank also said that an analysis had found that replacing inefficient engines in the Turkish industry would cost some 27 billion Turkish liras ($4.6 billion), but this could produce annual energy savings of 24 billion Turkish liras ($4 billion).

He said 90 percent of the electric motors used in industry is inefficient.

"These inefficient engines need to be replaced with new, higher-tech, and more efficient engines," he added.

Varank also conveyed that the Turkish government is planning to give some incentives to industrialists for this.

"Let's say the cost of the engines to be used for this conversion is 100 Turkish Liras, 60 of which will be given to industrialists as a grant. We hope to start doing this next week," he said.

He also announced that a study of more...

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