The Energy Regulation and Markets Review - Stikeman Elliott

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Turkey
Ownership and market access restrictions
Foreign investors may invest in the Turkish energy market by participating with, or
establishing, a Turkish legal entity holding a licence. There are no indigenous shareholder
requirements for licence-holding entities, and foreign investors may own 100 per cent of
the shares in a licence holding company, subject to Article 14(3) of the EML; however,
there are some market restrictions applicable. First, total market share of generation
facilities operated by individual private-sector generation company and their affiliates
may not exceed 20 per cent of the published figure for the total installed capacity in
Turkey in the previous year. Second, autoproducers and autoproducer groups can only
sell 20 per cent of the average amount of electricity generation to the market in a calendar
year, which is incorporated in their licences. Third, the total market share of any private
sector wholesale company, together with its affiliates, may not exceed 10 per cent of the
total electricity consumed in the market in the previous year.
iv Transfers of control and assignments
The direct or indirect acquisition of more than 10 per cent of shares of a licence-holder
company (or 5 per cent in publicly offered companies) is subject to EMRA’s approval.
In addition, share acquisitions that result in the ownership of more than 10 per cent
of the licence holder’s capital or share transfers that leads to decrease in a shareholder’s
shares below the aforementioned rate are also subject to the EMRA’s approval. Mergers,
consolidations, change of control, change in the structure of these companies, or a
change in the generation, transmission or distribution facilities of a company through a
sale, transfer or any other means, are also subject to EMRA’s approval.
III
TRANSMISSION/TRANSPORTATION and DISTRIBUTION
SERVICES
i Transmission and distribution access
Transmission activity in Turkey can only be carried out by TEİAŞ under its transmission
licence, which is not encompassed by the privatisation programme. Due to the
monopolistic nature of transmission, TEİAŞ must treat all parties equally. Also, according
to the Licensing Regulation, TEİAŞ must plan the connection needs of all third parties.
This regulation further provides that TEİAŞ is required to provide an opinion on the
suitability for connection of generation and autoproducer licence applicants within 45
days, and it must provide its reasoning if its opinion is to reject the application. Likewise,
a connection request by third parties in distribution areas must also be handled according
to equal treatment principles.
In addition, the regulation prohibits TEİAŞ, or a distribution company, to
prevent an eligible customer to choose its suppliers and its connection and system usage
rights. For example, neither TEİAŞ nor a distribution company may reject a connection
or system usage request unless:
a the network is technically insufficient at the time of the requested connection
point;
b the facility does not comply with connection standards set out in the legislation;
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