Turkey has started to implement a new energy investment model called RERA in 2016, aiming to promote renewable energy investments and use of local manufacturing and technology. Together with other support and incentive mechanisms as well as higher feed-in tariffs in place, RERA model may attract interest of both domestic and foreign investors. Turkey announced a first set of public projects under the RERA model on 3 July 2020. Under this new structure, investors will be able to build and operate solar electricity generation plants with grid connection capacities that are equal to or smaller than 10 megawatts (mWs). In this article, we provide an introductory overview on how Mini RERA tenders will be performed and what investors should expect.

“Regulation Concerning the Modifications Made in the Electricity Market Licensing Regulation” numbered 30826 was published and entered into force on 9 July 2019.

With this modification, EMRA has established the Application System (“EPDK Başvuru Sistemi”) enabling electronic submissions for all pre-license and licensing applications to EMRA. In this context, a number of provisions in the Licensing Regulation that regulates procedures concerning applications made by legal entities were updated and were adapted to the new system.

For all electronic applications, all interested legal entities shall submit EMRA in writing the information concerning real persons who are authorized to make applications. The main service unit will complete the authorization of such real persons in 5 business days following the submission.

As per Provisional Article 28/2, the transition period in which the applications will be accepted physically ends on 30 November 2019.

By virtue of the modified Regulation, all legal entities who will apply to EMRA for a pre-license shall also obtain a notification address through the National Electronic Notification System (“Ulusal Elektronik Tebligat Sistemi”).

Another amendment introduced in the Regulation concerns the applications for pre-licenses with regard to the installation of wind and solar energy panels under the Licensing Regulation – with the exception for applications made under the Renewable Energy Source Areas (YEKA) scheme. The period to undertake standard wind and solar measurements has been increased from 3 years to 8 years.

Please follow the link to access the full text of the Regulation Concerning the Modifications Made in the Electricity Market Licensing Regulation.