The Future Of Domestic Coal-Fired Power Generation In Turkey

1. INTRODUCTION

Even in the most liberalized power markets production planning requires a policy approach so that the long term balance of the market will be secured and other policy objectives are also watched. That is exactly why the policymaking functions are still being kept and carried out by the ministries while regulatory functions are undertaken by the sector-specific regulatory bodies. Having said that, one needs to reiterate the crucial statement in power markets: "Even in highly liberalized power markets, generation is still subject to long-term planning.¹"

There are several rationales underlying such a philosophy. First of all, the construction of power plants takes quite a long time so one needs to start deciding on how much to generate today given the demand forecasts for the future. Second, although electricity is one of the most homogenous goods, it is not possible to argue the same for power plants. There are at least three types of plants: base