Author: yuvakuran

Source: Xinhua [09:17 January 14 2010]

Russia and Turkey have signed a joint statement here Wednesday on the construction of a nuclear power plant on Turkish soil.

The document was signed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin in charge of energy and fuel affairs, and his Turkish counterpart Taner Yildiz, after talks between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his visiting Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan.

Erdogan said preparations for the signing of a formal agreement were currently under way in Turkey, while Putin said talks on the construction of the nuclear power plant would continue, and the two countries “naturally count on its positive completion.”

Putin also said Russia had “significant advantages” for implementing the project.

“We provide loans and equipment, and we give local construction companies … a share of 20-25 percent or even 30 percent in the entire volume of contracts,” he said, “We provide nuclear fuel and are ready to take back spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing.”

The Russian-Turkish consortium created by Atomstroiexport, Inter RAO UES and Park Technic will implement the construction of the nuclear power plant that consists of four units with a combined capacity of about five gigawatts, news agencies reported.

The first unit was scheduled to be cast in 2011. The site will probably locate in the town of Akkuyu near the Mediterranean city of Mersin.

The project is estimated to cost between 18 and 20 billion US dollars.

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News , Monday, January 11, 2010

Galata Energy, a subsidiary of Turkey’s Global Yatırım Holding, has signed a deal with a Chinese company to construct a 270-megawatt power plant in the southeastern city of Şırnak.

The Turkish firm, which currently holds a license from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority, or EMRA, has signed a turnkey contract with the China National Machinery & Equipment Import & Export Corporation (CMEC), financing US $355 million for the construction of the circulating-fluidized-bed-boiler power plant.

The investment is expected to support the meeting of Turkey’s growing energy demand through local sources, the firm said in a written statement last week.

The Şırnak power plant is expected to generate annual electricity corresponding to approximately 1.7 billion kilowatts per hour (what is this??? :-))). Some 1,000 people (Chinese???) will be employed during the construction period, which is predicted to take approximately 38 months. Once operational, the plant will employ 2,400 people (Chinese??), including mine personnel.

The asphaltite reserve has been modeled in detail through a series of 8,470-meter-deep drillings into the mine. The coal mine will provide energy to the power plant as technical specifications are determined, according to a company filing with the Istanbul Stock Exchange, or ISE, last week.

Following the analysis conducted by the Turkish Atomic Energy Agency, or TAEK, it was announced that there would be no unfavorable conditions related to the storage of the power plant’s ash waste.

One ton of limestone from deposits north of Şırnak, along with five tons of asphaltite from the mine, were delivered to Germany and subjected to a burning test at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The emissions were reported to be in accordance with the EU Directive for Mass-Burning Boilers.

The Şırnak power-plant project was granted a positive decision on its Environmental Impact Assessment through a decree by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, dated Jan. 8, 2009.

Dear Colleagues, Dear Energy Professional,

On 5 December 2009, I participated in an Energy Forum in Hatay province, which had been organised by the Chamber of Turkish Electrical engineers and was held at the Iskenderun Town Municipality hall.

The small town council meeting hall was shaped like an amphitheatre. The energy forum was open to all interested parties.

I presented a speech on investment evaluations of new imported coal firing thermal power plants in the region, especially on the coast of Iskenderun Bay, on behalf of the Chamber of Turkish Mechanical Engineers.

One section of the audience seats was occupied by the Ladies of Straw Mountain (Samandağ), from the deep south of Hatay province.

They have many years of historical heritage. Their region produces various agricultural products and is known for its beautiful seashores. Now the good old peaceful days are over.

New wind power investments have been made in their region to generate renewable energy from the strong winds present year round.

The ladies gave their opinions at every given opportunity and stated their opposition to “Wind power plants”.

For veterans of the energy business, it was quite surprising – even shocking – to see such a local reaction to clean renewable energy investments. We must generate more electricity to provide a better life for our children; we have been starving from low generation of electricity for decades.

We all feel that we will need all types of power plants in the future – thermal, hydro, renewable wind, solar, even nuclear – provided that we have maximised the scope of local engineering and the participation of local contracting companies and local employment. We all feel that if there is no local employment opportunity in a new energy investment, then we do not need that investment.

I understand the public reaction to thermal power plants since we do not have many good plants in operation. They all pollute the environment and we do not have any cure for rehabilitation other than privatisation.

I understand the public reaction to nuclear power plants, since we have high concern for nuclear pollution, uncontrolled nuclear waste as well as a high sensitivity for operational controls.

I understand the public reaction to the hydropower plants that are planned to be constructed on the beautiful highland creeks of the Eastern Black Sea.

But I cannot understand the public reaction to wind power plants, which are presumed to be the last resort of clean renewable energy.

The ladies of Straw Mountain are against new wind power plants in their land because they make too much noise, they kill migrating birds, they negatively interfere with agricultural activities, and they create pollution in their touristic and beautiful seashores.

Now let me ask, how shall we generate electricity? We all want more electricity in our houses, in our workshops, in our industrial plants, in our schools, hospitals, malls for illumination, to feed our engines, to run our machines, to use our computers, to care for our patients, to teach our children.

Who will pay the burden of environmental pollution, noise, and adverse effects on agriculture, air and water pollution?

The ladies of Straw Mountain do not want wind power plants. They want their terms to be agreed to. Investors should not make noise, they should not kill migrating birds, they should not have adverse effects on agricultural activities, they should not create pollution in touristic areas. They should keep their EIA application promises during the many years of operation in the long term.

If we have a thermal power plant investment, the investor should employ the local engineering capability, employ local contracting for construction and site installation, design with high dust collecting efficiency dust filters. They should limit SO2, NOx gas emissions. They should install flue gas desulphurisation facilities at all times. They should install carbon capture and storage facilities to reduce global warming. And they should consider more comprehensive new designs, such as Integrated Gasification Combined cycle designs.

If an investment project does not create jobs for local engineering firms, if it does not create jobs for the local qualified workers, if it does not give contracting opportunities to local companies, then we do NOT need that project.

On the other hand, we know that we cannot get anywhere by saying “we do not want power plants.” We need more energy, more electricity generation. So we need a consensus between the local people and investors. The expression “We do not want Chinese, but we want Germans or American or Koreans” is neither sensible nor logical.

We have our own solution. Foreigners cannot solve our problems. We need to have more qualified engineering staff, we need to have more hardware and software to design our thermal power plants now and nuclear power plants in future when we have reached that point in our engineering capability.

Otherwise we cannot survive in this difficult geography.

Why should we install wind power plants in Straw Mountain, on our beautiful shores, but not on the high mountains like Erciyes, Mount Ararat or inland Anatolia?

The issue is that the air is so thin at high altitudes that it cannot turn the wind propeller properly to produce at full capacity. Wind can turn the propeller at high altitudes, but it cannot generate the capacity that the plants are designed to handle.

You can generate maybe 500 Kw from a wind power plant that was originally designed to generate 1.5 Mwe. So the unit investment price jumps from $2000 USD per installed kw to maybe $6000 USD per installed kw power generation. That is surely not feasible. There is no point to invest with such a high initial cost.

When you look at a wind map of Turkey, you find high availability (more than 20%) regions in the Straw Mountains, Alaçatı, Çeşme, Çanakkale, and Bandırma coastal regions. Not inland, not in the high mountains.

In Turkey we should construct our local coal firing thermal power plants at the mouths of mines, and our combined cycle power plants at the points where natural gas pipelines enter our country in Samsun, Igdir, Edirne, Tekirdag (LNG), Izmir (LNG).

We should construct our imported new coal firing thermal power plants in Iskenderun Bay, since there would be no natural blockages of Turkish channels. We can construct our nuclear power plant on our Black Sea coast, maybe in Sinop when we are ready with our engineering capability.

Who can invest? At what capacity can they invest? What criteria should they follow? We should all be in the decision making process. We as Chambers of Turkish engineers, NGOs of local regions in the investment plants, as well as all public institutions, should all be in the picture.

This investment decision cannot be left to the mercy of foreign designers, foreign investors, foreign financing institutions, foreign companies. Cheap design promotions, cheap contracts are not suitable since they have short life spans, they wear fast and become scrap soon.

We need the participation and contributions of our ladies of Straw Mountain at all times to review and monitor the projects for power plant investments in our country.

A Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all.

—
Haluk Direskeneli, Hamburg based Energy Analyst

Dear Colleagues, Dear Energy Professional,

I learnt the latest announcement of a new thermal power plant investment in Amasra County of Bartin Province, which will utilize a nearby relatively high LHV local bituminous mine. We understand that a local engineering company has already prepared the environmental impact assessment (EIA) study for the new investment project; it was recently released on the internet page of Bartin province for public information and awareness.

The local investor has applied to acquire 49-year long-term concession rights for exploitation of local bituminous proven coal reserves of approximately 573 million metric tons, to fire 932 tons of coal per hour in 4 boilers, at approximately 7000 hours of annual availability. Lower heating value of available bituminous coal is around 5800 kcal per kg (plus/ minus 10%).

The local Turkish investor company is planning to construct two new thermal power plants in the Gomu and TarlaAgzi villages of Amasra county, each to generate 2×660 MWe electricity based on pulverized coal firing technology and sell the generated electricity in IPP scheme.

They are preparing to apply to the Ministry of Environment for EIA approval prior to their investment license application from the Local Regulatory Board, EMRA.

However, since EIA permission has not been granted yet, prior to their EIA application, they will be organizing a “Public Information Meeting”. Details are on their web site.

I am pleased to get such news on new energy investments in our local energy market, provided that

– They are designed environmentally friendly, to enable low CO2 emissions with CCS,
– They have E/Ps, FGD, CCS fully installed and operated,
– They have completed all obligations for Environmental Impact Assessment Reports,
– They receive their license from the Local Regulatory Board,
– They are designed by local engineering companies or in-house engineering as much as possible,
– They are fabricated in the local fabrication plants as much as possible,
– They are installed by our local contractors,
– They are commissioned and supervised by our local engineering power,
– They are operated by our own local staff, and
– Regularly checked by our own Labor force in programmed maintenance.

I sincerely feel that energy investors deserve all our support to complete those power plant investments. They deserve this since they risk their own property in order to get proper “Corporate Financing” at reasonable interest rates, and payment terms.

They will be investing 1,400 million Euros equivalent money, which is a huge sum to finance in our terms in the international markets. That will release the unit investment cost and will be approximately 800 US Dollars per installed kW electricity generation. Only Far East companies can declare such a low price. If the contract would be placed to a Chinese company, then we would expect poor design, poor performance, and all turnkey construction which means all employees from Mainland China, mostly soldiers or convicts, and with almost minimum wage. That decision will create no employment for the local population.

On the other hand, there is great risk in project finance of such investments due to public response. Those companies, who are ignorant of local workforce employment expectations, and neglecting local engineering contribution, neglecting environmental limitations, will surely deserve the highest level of local resistance in legal platforms.

They will have too much of a headache during project execution; therefore, the project finance institutions should make their risk assessments carefully; otherwise, they pay the consequences heavily.

I warn them not to make any technical mistakes in their power plant design, avoid incorrect selection of the necessary equipment, and wish them to operate the plant for many years, to generate electricity which will push our economic prosperity.

After reading the EIA Project Information Report on the web page, we are very uncomfortable since the said document is ill-prepared, full of technical mistakes, unprofessional charts, diagrams, and simple translation of documents without any project commitment.

We feel that they are not yet prepared on their behalf. There are not many project details; only already known general information is disclosed.

We learned that the output capacity is 2×660 MWe at each of two different sites in Bartin Province. We understand that they will install a seawater cooling system. This means they will not use much underground water. That is good for nearby ongoing agricultural activities. As a matter of fact, seawater cooling is also difficult to handle without any harm to sea life.

We do not know details of the manufacturer for the selected steam turbine, pulverized coal firing technology, cooling system, heat balance diagrams, fabrication, construction, site installation contractors, whether they are local or foreign, details of budget figures for each item, or the timetable for project execution.

It is my humble feeling that we should help and warn the investor not to repeat negative past examples in Antalya, Denizli, Yatagan, Yenikoy, Kemerkoy, Afsin Elbistan.

The local investor should feel comfortable that we shall be warning them in proper design, sourcing fabrication, site installation, logistics, and public approvals. We all expect that these energy investments will bring prosperity, employment and peace to the site.

Maximized local manpower, as well as maximized local engineering/ fabrication/ site installation capabilities should be employed.

After brief review of the project, we feel that we need answers to the following questions,

– We need to learn the OEM suppliers of the basic equipment,
– We need to know the details of steam turbine, steam generator, condenser, cooling system, coal mills, fans, pumps, E/P, FGD, CCS, I&C.
– Who will be making the basic design (Pulverized Coal firing Boiler, CMEC China?), who will be the fabricator, who will be the construction company for site installation?
– It is our understanding that they have not applied yet to EIA certification or to the Local regulatory board for licensing. What is the timetable?
– There should not be any deviation of the information they will be declaring in the local information meeting and the information they will be furnishing to the public administrations.
– We would be too pleased to learn the details of the boiler design, supplementary firing burners, burner management systems, and emission controls. Local emission limitations are not so stringent. They should be all in compliance with EU standards.
– We shall be too pleased to learn where they will be purchasing the cooling system design and equipment.
– We need to know who will be the site constructor, what is the budget figure? They should be local companies. Local labors should be employed at the construction site. If you promise to have employment for 1000 workers, then you should avoid the use of foreign workers.
– If a project does not create employment for the local people, it is our sincere feeling that there is no need for that project.
– If a project promises to utilize the local bituminous coal, hence there should be no change to the imported coal option in the long term.
– We need to know the project implementation period, the important milestones; we expect that 36-40 months could be a reasonable period.
– We need to know who will be making and paying the new 154 or 380 kV transmission line to the plant site.
– We need to know when the major equipment land transportation will be made; do we have sufficient roads/ seaports for that transportation, who will be making the road reinforcement to enable the transportation?
– Do they have long term electricity sale agreements with TETAS?
– Do they consider any capacity extension in the long term in 10-20 years time? Do they have enough space/ land for that extension??
– Do investors consider any IGCC application in future by gasification of indigenous bituminous coal mines based on clean coal technologies?
– We will be too pleased to learn if the local party is thinking to create a local engineering department to carry out necessary basic engineering in the long term.

I hope for all the best, and the success of the investors in their new venture. Your comments are always welcome.

Happy and Prosperous New Year and Merry Christmas to you all!
—
Haluk Direskeneli, Energy Analyst,
Hamburg, 26th December 2009

Dear Colleagues

Your writer is in Hamburg Germany for next two weeks. within his humble capacity he tried to bring together an overview of Energy Generation in Hamburg and environment. Below article is collected from Vattenfall internet site press releases.

The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg played a major role in establishing Vattenfall Europe as Germany’s third-largest producer of electricity and the largest supplier of district heat. Today, Hamburg and Berlin are the main centres of Vattenfall’s German business activities.

Vattenfall opened a representative office in Hamburg in 1996, two years before the German electricity market was deregulated, and began working in the German market. Through the next few years Vattenfall acquired HEW, and from that base went on to establish Vattenfall Europe as a major German energy company.

Today, Vattenfall produces electricity and heat for the industry and citizens of Hamburg, operating both the local electricity distribution network and the large district heating grid. Hamburg is also the centre of the Vattenfall group’s strategically important energy trading unit.

Sustainable development

Vattenfall’s task as an energy company is to provide its customers with energy; but we also see our role from a broader perspective. All energy generation has an impact on the environment and the operations we conduct have a major impact on society – globally, regionally and locally. Vattenfall supports sustainable development in society by managing the balance between secure energy supply and environmental and social consequences in a responsible way.

Vattenfall’s goal is to be a climate neutral company by 2050. For 2030 the target is to halve our CO2 emissions per kWh from energy generation compared with 1990. In order to achieve those goals, CO2 emissions from existing operations must be reduced while generation of electricity with very low CO2 emissions is being dramatically increased. The new electricity generation capacity needed to realise the climate vision will be derived from three sources: renewable energy (such as wind power, bio energy, ocean energy), coal power using the new CCS technology, and nuclear power.

Renewable energy

Waste incineration has delivered steam to the district heating system in Hamburg since 1931 and in 1953 a consortium in which HEW was a member initiated an early wind power testing plant. Today, Vattenfall is in the vanguard in the development of applications for new technologies based on biomass, wind and hydro power.

In Hamburg, the authorities have been faced with the problem of handling waste and sewage sludge from the city’s 1.7 million inhabitants along with waste from the city’s industries. The city also had to deal with the problem of having a high amount of unused and treated wood. In the search for a complete solution with broad and high social acceptance, located close to the city, the city came across a solution from Vattenfall.

Commissioned by the city of Hamburg, Vattenfall Europe (under the aegis of Vattenfall Europe Waste to Energy, formerly HEW Entsorgung) built two incineration plants in accordance with the highest environmental standards to handle waste and a sewage sludge and digester gas plant to handle sewage.

The last of the city’s problems – the large amount of contaminated wood – called for a biomass solution. In the vicinity of Hamburg’s harbour, Vattenfall designed and built a waste-to-energy facility on the site of the Müllverwertung Borsigstraße waste incineration plant. The biomass plant has a capacity to produce 80 MW heat and 20 MW electricity based on recycled wood, and can also handle treated wood.

Combined heat and power (CHP) plants, that is, plants that co-produce heat and electricity, preserve energy resources by using the fuel in a most efficient way and thereby decrease emissions per produced kilowatt hour. Up to 90 per cent fuel utilisation can be reached.

Hamburg’s currently largest CHP plant is Tiefstack with its recent addition, the new gas and steam plant (180 MW heat; 125 MW electricity). Biofuel or waste fuelled CHP plants in the Hamburg area also include Rugenberger Damm (70 MW heat; 7 MW electricity) and VERA (10 MW heat; 8 MW electricity).

Wind power
Powerfully investing in renewable energy production, Vattenfall has positioned itself as one of Europe’s leading generators of wind power, both offshore and onshore.

Its German wind power projects include the construction, jointly with other companies, of the “alpha ventus” offshore wind farm 45 kilometres off the coast of Borkum, the “DanTysk” project, with 80 five-megawatt wind power units 65 kilometres off the island of Sylt, and the “Borkum Riffgrund” offshore wind farm together with the Danish company Dong Energy.

On land, Vattenfall is cooperating with partners in replacing first generation wind power machines with more modern and higher capacity ones in already existing units, mainly in Schleswig-Holstein and Brandenburg.

Fuel cells
Fuel cells is another technology that may play an important role in the future. Vattenfall started early to test and evaluate stationary fuel cells for small combined heat and power plants, including a large (220 kWel/170 kWth) state-of-the-art fuel cell in Berlin, followed by a similar test in Hamburg. These fuel cells showed a high electrical efficiency, good heat utilisation and high availability and reliability levels. However, before a broad market introduction is possible, plant lifetime has to be higher and investment cost lower.

Coal remains essential
Renewable energy sources alone, however, cannot provide enough energy to cover the needs of society. Coal and nuclear power remain essential to cover the total need for electricity and heat. Germany’s decision to withdraw from nuclear power makes coal an even more essential source of base load power.

Vattenfall’s opinion is that coal is needed, but carbon dioxide emissions must be drastically reduced through continuously increasing the power plants’ degree of efficiency and utilising the new CCS (carbon capture and storage) technology as soon as it becomes mature enough. When CCS technology is ready for commercial use, CO2 emissions from coal-fired generation will be radically reduced.

One of the world’s most modern and efficient power plants for the supply of electricity and district heat (1600 MWe) is currently being built in Hamburg-Moorburg. It will replace the existing power plant in Hamburg-Wedel, which was built in 1962 and is planned to be shut down in 2013. Hamburg then needs a new base for its electricity and heat supply to secure energy supply for its citizens as well as for already established major industries and the city’s ability to attract new business.

Located on the Elbe River on a site that has been used for electricity generation since 1974, the Moorburg 1640 MWe coal-fired plant will make use of the latest available technology in its construction.

This new units A and B of the Hamburg Moorburg power plant will have an electrical output of 2 x 820 MW and will achieve an efficiency of 60 % at maximum district heat extraction.

Once in operation, the plant will meet roughly 85% of Hamburg’s electricity needs and 40% of its district heating needs. The plant is designed to incorporate CCS technology in the future.

Nuclear power plants

Vattenfall’s nuclear power plants Brunsbüttel and Krümmel have remained offline following scrams in 2007. The reasons for the scrams were remedied the same year, but as a result of time consuming refurbishments and modernization work as well as new demands that have been raised, Brunsbüttel has not yet been restarted. Krümmel was restarted in June 2009, but a new fault occurred in one of the two transformers that transmit the electricity from the plant on to the grid. Power production in Krümmel will now remain halted until both transformers have been replaced with new ones.

Such mishaps are, of course, most unfortunate. However, Vattenfall believes that nuclear power is needed as a stable base power source and calls for expansion of total nuclear power generation in markets where there is confidence in this source of energy. In Germany Vattenfall will utilise the production volume guaranteed by law for its present nuclear power plants.

Security always has top priority in Vattenfall’s nuclear power plants and our ambition is to secure world-class nuclear safety.

Centre of Trading

A growing share of Europe’s electricity trading is conducted on electricity exchanges, where producers, retailers, major industrial companies and financial players operate. Trading is conducted either through direct delivery on the spot market, or for future delivery in the futures market. The Nordic electricity exchange, Nord Pool, and the European Energy Exchange (EEX) in Germany are clearly the largest exchanges in terms of volume and the number of market participants.

Vattenfall Energy Trading in Hamburg is the most diverse company in the organisation with more than 20 nationalities. The company operates in the international energy markets in order to balance supply and demand, mitigate market risks, and fulfil the targets for sustainable energy. Electricity trading is a major activity, but the company trades the whole range of energy products such as gas, coal, oil, carbon emissions or renewable energy.

The trading unit utilises market-based solutions in order to reduce CO2 emissions and to strengthen renewable energies – in a cost-efficiently way and on a pan-European basis. It has a key role in securing the financial stability and profitability that constitute the basis for Vattenfall’s services to its customers.

Nature conservation projects

Finally, it may be worth mentioning that Vattenfall’s environmental foundation since many years provides considerable support for a great number of nature conservation projects in and around Hamburg. Many of these projects include environment education for children in conurbation areas to acquaint them with nature.

Your comments are always welcome.

Haluk Direskeneli, Hamburg based Energy Analyst for next two weeks

Dear Energy Professional, Dear Colleagues,

On Saturday, 12 December 2009, we had the opportunity to participate in the Panel on “Ermenek Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant” at the Middle East Technical University Alumni Association in Visnelik Premises in Ankara, Turkey.

The 309 megawatt Ermenek hydropower project is currently under construction, and located on the Ermenek River, a tributary of the Göksu River in the province of Karaman. The Göksu River is one of the last free-flowing rivers in Turkey.

Its delta has been recognized as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. Though there are plans for five further hydropower plants, there has been no basin-wide assessment of the cumulative impacts of Ermenek and the other projects.

The investment financing has been organized between the governments of Turkey and Austria in the framework of bilateral cooperation. The Turkish Water Works Public Institution DSI (Client) signed the contract in 2002, with the international consortium lead by local BM Holding, which acted as a leader within the consortium.

BM Holding Vice Chairman Özgür Çaglayan Kuyumcu (CE’1998), and Project Coordinator Hakan Kazanc (CE’1995), were the panel speakers. The Panel Moderator was Ms. Ozlem Izlem AYDIN (EnvE’2004).

The Panel speakers explained all phases of the hydroelectric dam construction. The project is the first of its kind where a Turkish contractor (BM Holding) is the Pilot Company in a large multi-national consortium.

The double curvature, asymmetrical, thin concrete arch dam body, which will have a height of 210 meters from the thalveg, is among the two highest dams in Turkey and the 6th highest in Europe. The dam is being constructed in an extremely deep and narrow gorge, having a width of less than 150 meters at its top, and as little as 5 meters at its bottom.

Owing further to the highly carstified geological structure of the project area, as well as to the obstructed access, limited only to the use of a Cable Crane across and into the valley, the project is easily rated as among the most demanding and technically complex construction undertakings in Turkey.

Upon completion, the project will hold an important place in the national energy generation, with a planned installed power of 309 MW.

The Project shall be completed in 5 years, where repayment shall commence at the end of 2.5 years. The Project will be built with 100% foreign project financing by Ermenek Consortium. The contract upfront value is EUR 539,635,747, and the total project cost to completion is currently estimated at approximately 700 million Euros.

The financing group includes ABN AMRO Bank, Bayerische Landesbank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau and Société Générale as joint lead arrangers, Bayerische Landesbank as agent of the banks, Bank Austria Creditanstalt Group as Co-Arranger and OeKB as facility agent. Hermes also provided reinsurance for the OeKB export credit.

Also included in BM’s scope of works is close to 1,000,000 LM of drilling and grouting works in addition to 68,140 meters of roads and 18,729 meters of tunnels.

Since the dam has a great reservoir at the back, hydro turbines will have greater availability in a year to generate power. We are happy to learn that there is also a great opportunity for flood protection of the nearby environment.

To meet our country’s increasing energy demands, we need to have similar investments, and local contractors who can put their efforts towards finalizing the projects. In the end, we can say that, all we need is self-confidence, and the confidence of investors who will put money into other similar new projects, which will utilize the local hydro capacity.

Once again, we would like to congratulate the Construction Management and the Creditors who give money to make the project realized, and to the engineers/ employees who make the dam construction finalized.

Panel Presentation link is given on the title block of this blog.
Your comments are always welcome.
—
Haluk Direskeneli, Ankara based Energy Analyst

Photo- Hatay iskenderun Energy Forum on 5th December 2009

Dear Energy Professional, Dear Colleagues,

If you are the Minister of Health, then it is expected that you should have a graduate degree from a leading University Medical School. Similarly, if you are the Minister of Justice, you should have a Law degree and many years of practice in courts. An engineer is not expected nor preferred to be a minister of Justice, or in Public Health. Such assignments can be possible theoretically but not desired or expected.

It is preferred that Foreign Ministers are to be graduates of International Politics of reputable universities, with further postgraduate degrees in the same field and multi language capabilities. Our new FM is a perfect choice due to his amazing university career. His book on “Strategic Dept” is an extraordinary intellectual output which describes our new political approach as “no-problems with neighbors”.

Likewise, our Minister in charge of the Treasury is another good choice with his graduate 4.0 GPA from the METU Industrial engineering department which was further reinforced with an MBA degree from a reputable U.S. business school.

On the other hand, anyone can be chosen as Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in our country. Reputable names of our political environment with post graduate degrees from Ankara University in the Department of Political Science have been assigned as Ministers of Energy in the past. No one asks, “Why? Are they capable?”

Even a lawyer was chosen as a Minister of Energy for three consecutive terms. During his term, we had arbitration disputes, and we paid costly consequences. During their time, they learned the energy business, but it proved to be a very costly education experience of the job.

Our previous Minister had a post graduate degree from METU Metallurgy Department. He knew metals, mining, metallurgy, and he had time to consume six years of the energy business in detail during his management.

I strongly advise that the Minister of Energy should have an engineering degree. He should also speak a foreign language, preferably English, and furthermore, his knowledge in Russian, Farsi, Arabic, and/or French is a plus. It is also preferable that he have a post graduate degree in international politics and international commercial law.

The most important item is that he should have taken undergraduate coursework on Thermodynamics, earning a top grade.

Last week I was in Hatay Iskenderun to participate and deliver a speech at an Energy Forum which was organized by the local branch of the Chamber of Turkish Electrical Engineers. The speech was presented on 5th December 2009, to an audience of more than 80 professionals. Most were local electrical engineers but also from other engineering disciplines as well.

By asking interactive questions, we had the opportunity to learn the experience and educational profile of the audience. We understood that all of them had received undergraduate courses on Thermodynamics since it is compulsory.

Our new Energy Minister is also a graduate of Istanbul Technical University and has a Graduate degree from the EE department, and he too for sure had compulsory Thermodynamics courses during his undergraduate years.

Please do note that the Energy Ministry is a public institution to serve but not a school nor a university. Any public employee, at all levels should have had sufficient graduate education. We should not reeducate the newcomers that “volt” is not “watt”, there is no such expression as “teravolt”, and “Megabyte” is not “Mega-Watt”.

We should not teach them the differences between power plants, CFB, IGCC, nor details of the Kyoto protocol. They should know that Nuclear Power plants are essentially thermal power plants with one cycle more in heat balance diagrams.

They should know that our country had no chance, no finance, no capability to build its own thermal power plants but all small East European countries have. At present, there are Far East companies appearing to build new imported coal firing thermal power plants on our shores at a fraction of international markets turnkey basis, complete with basic design, fabrication, outsourcing the key equipment, site construction, site installation, and even long-term operation.

One should know that we could not have our own nuclear power plant for the last 40 years since we could not build our own thermal power plants during the same period under our own engineering capability.

While we have unemployment complaints, how come we tolerate Far East companies bringing their own employees, mostly convicts/ soldiers, at minimum labor cost. It is not possible in Europe, Northern America, Russia, or in Arab Countries.

European countries require the foreign contractors to pay the minimum wage in European standards to their employees. That makes the competition fair. Our name is in the reference list of Far East contractors along with the least developed countries such as Sri Lanka / Bangladesh / Pakistan / Laos / Vietnam / Malaysia / Indonesia/ Central Africa / Sudan and Yemen. That is a real embarrassment to be on those lists.

If you can handle the basic design engineering and can do your own outsourcing, make the site construction in-house, use your local capabilities for site installation and external piping, under the prevailing international market figures, you can reduce your overall investment cost by about 25%.

Far East companies deliver technical drawing in their own language except the simple title block. Our engineers can not read them. Investors do not want to take operation risk. The new tendency is in making long-term operation contracts with the original contractors. It is the case now in Sirnak, KaraBiga and BeyPazari. This practice could be repeated in Catalagzi soon. Local employment will be limited to the security posts at the main entrance of the plant.

European Trade unions protect the rights of their members. They also protect the local employment capabilities. Their political parties are very sensitive in these issues since they can not risk upsetting their voters; otherwise, they pay the consequences heavily.

If local trade unions cannot voice on these issues, then it becomes the responsibility of the Chambers of Engineers to speak up on behalf of local engineering for employment protection.

When we review the Environmental Impact Assessment reports, other than flora and fauna and all those unnecessary details, we read that the investment would create so many numbers of local employments. You feel happy that our countrymen will have employment; we shall have so many families and their dependants get money to survive.

When we complete the EIA report, and accept their application, we find that the investor places the final order to a Far East originated cheap design/ cheap supplier/ cheap contractor, and that cheap contractor brings thousands of employees (or convicts/ soldiers) to our land. The power plant supply also has a short lifespan due to poor material consumed during the project just to survive in the temporary acceptance period.

We should have continuous monitoring of Environmental Impact Assessment conditions during all phases of the project as well as periodical inspections during operation. That is a very serious issue.

We now have an unnecessary number of license applications for construction imported coal firing, new thermal power plants. Do we have the capability to have all of them on our beautiful shores?? Do we need them all??

How will they control their stack emissions, CO2 emissions, fly-ash dust emissions, or slug disposal? To what standards, to EU or to Local? Shouldn’t we have some reasonable limitations in numbers and capacities? Should we approve them all?

Energy is a very serious business. It is vital for the people. We should sincerely take all of those regulating procedures starting from licensing, continued in financing, tendering, environmental controls, construction and long-term operations. We need a qualified, experienced, highly educated public staff to monitor all these serious activities.

Honestly speaking, if I would be your Editor in a leading Newspaper in nationwide circulation, I would never allow a columnist to write an article on energy if he/she had no education in Thermodynamics in his/her undergrad university education.

Your comments are always welcome. Thank you and best regards.
—
Haluk Direskeneli, Hamburg based Energy Analyst

Dear Energy Professional, Dear Colleagues,

On November 27th 2009, we received news from BBC and CNN that Dubai, a small city state, faced a massive debt problem. At present, they are unable to pay this debt for the next six months and news that might have seemed inconsequential suddenly became huge when it was disclosed that the debt, which was initially $40 billion, jumped to $60 billion and is today estimated at $80 billion.

Dubai is a small gulf city state with no petroleum resources. They serve the other neighboring Gulf States with no limitations whatsoever. They have financial institutions, luxury hotels with all the amenities and facilities one could imagine, including alcohol, gambling and prostitution. They have new real estate construction projects in various Palm shapes on Gulf shores. However, despite all of these lavishes, they could not circulate the debt repayment properly. Their debt accumulated, and in the end, S&P declared that Dubai is commercially listed in a state of bankruptcy as of last Friday.

It is our sincere feeling that this was an inevitable consequence of a deregulated financial system on remote Gulf shores. Without a regulated market, it may happen elsewhere in the future. Along with Dubai, debt insurance, or so-called credit-default swaps, also jumped sharply amongst Gulf States such as Bahrain and Qatar. Insurance against debt defaults rose for Turkey, Russia, Greece and Ireland as well.

The Dubai state company has prestigious real estate purchases in Istanbul through IETT privatization and there is a project called Dubai Towers there too.

The financial institutions that finance this huge spending are in difficult positions. These commercial banks are named in British newspapers as HSBC, ING, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche, Citi, and countless others.

We are happy to learn that Turkish banks have no such risk exposure at this time. We are told that our financial institutions have no appetite, no capability, no permission, no funds, nor any courage to enter such volatile markets. However, on the other hand, we have at least 100+ Turkish contractors of all sizes working in the area. These are major contractors or subcontractors of big construction projects, man-made islands, airports, hotels, and infrastructure facilities. These are big names in our construction business: MNG, Gama, Baytur, Yüksel, Nurol, Güriş, and STFA are all in Dubai.

We are told that the debt crisis was very well known by our colleagues in the region since these Turkish companies/ contractors were unable to receive their monthly payments for more than one year. We were unable to have such information and it was kept secret in order to not spread panic to their suppliers. Now, this has all been made public and those companies will not receive any money for the next 6 months at minimum.

There will be a great multiplier effect; these companies could not pay their employees and now their employees will not be able to send money to their families. They will not be able to pay their living expenses at home either. It is a snowball getting bigger and bigger everyday.

This is your writer’s humble evaluation of the ongoing events in the Gulf. We need to have a clearer explanation of the latest status, clear definitions of Credit Default Swaps (CDS), and debt repayments in order to know whether we are now in the second phase of the global crisis.

I expect those constructors to return home and work on local projects, such as the new thermal power plant investments, thermal power plant rehabilitation tenders. There will be less hot money injection from Gulf States which make our local financial markets too volatile.

During hard times of economic crisis, stay in cash, stay liquid, get restructured, continue in employee training, continue advertisement, and get more prudent in spending. I wonder if this is a commercial/ financial nightmare.

Your comments are always welcome. Thank you and best regards.

—
Haluk Direskeneli, Ankara based Energy Analyst

Dear Energy Professionals, Dear Colleagues,

In his December 2006 article on the Macroeconomics of Asset Shortages, Economist Ricardo J. Caballero says, “The world has a shortage of financial assets. Asset supply is having a hard time keeping up with the global demand for store of value and collateral by households, corporations, governments, insurance companies, and financial intermediaries more broadly. In equilibrium, the value of the (relatively) few existing assets must rise, which has important global macroeconomic implications. These shortages have been a perennial problem in emerging markets, where many of their economic perils and idiosyncrasies stem from this feature. But we are now seeing a shortage on a global scale. It probably began with the meltdown of a substantial share of Japanese assets in the early 1990s, it was exacerbated by European stagnation and the collective emerging market crises of the late 1990s, and it consolidated in the new millennium by the fast income growth of China and commodity countries, most of which have substantial asset demand needs but are not natural asset producers”.

It is so sad to visualize that on one hand world assets cannot find proper investments, while on the other hand our local power plant investments cannot find money to get started. There is a great investment credibility problem in our local energy markets. We need to have a clear inspection of this major problem starting from the annual investment requirements of our local market, clear figures of electricity supply demand in the local market, the capacity we will need in the future, and what we face if we do not initiate such investments.

In order to review the balance of electricity supply demand in Turkey, we look at the internet pages of a local Public Transmission company, and we come up with a Turkish Installed Capacity at 44,472.5 MWe as of November 2009.

We can also visualize that, on a month-by-month basis, installed capacity is lower in 2009 than in 2008. In 2008, installed capacity was 41817 MWe, and Peak load was 30842 MWe. We understand that we had no such a big shortage problem in year 2008.

In 2009, our Installed Capacity is 2600 MW higher, but our demand peak is 4% lower than it was in 2008. The hardest years for the Turkish system are the drought years since we have a high sensitivity due to the relatively high hydrocapacity.

So we multiply the installed capacity by 4650 hours for higher scenarios and by 4500 for lower scenario; this is a rough approximation for capacity utilization. Do note that the system has the ability to achieve more than 5000 hours on average annually. If the resulting number is less than the expected demand, then it means the electricity generation system is under stress.

44472.5 MW x 4500 hours (average per year overall availability) = 200 TW-hours
44472.5 MW x 4650 hours = 206.8 TW-hours

Expected demand for 2009 is 194 TW-hours.
Expected demand for 2010 is 206.6 TW-hours.

So without any adding any additional capacity, the existing installed capacity should be enough until the end of 2010.

In summary, Turkey has almost 45,000 MWe installed capacity, though we did not exceed 36,000 MWe at peak hours in 2009.

The remaining portion is NOT available since they are not reliable – sources such as wind, solar, hydro, all renewable – or they are out of service, as in case of many old thermal power plants.

Apart from periods of economic crisis, Turkey needs approximately a 6-8 percent increase per year in electricity output in order to keep the desired growth rate.

New investments require a project execution period of 2-4 years for natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plants, 1-2 years for wind, 5-7 years for hydro (ILISU?), and 7-20 years for nuclear. In this period, money is allocated, but revenues are not generated before completion.

Every kw of power created costs approximately $1000 US Dollars on average. Combined-cycle plants cost a bit less, $500-$600 USD per kw, while thermal power plants cost around $2000 USD per kw. There is no average price per kw available for nuclear power plants.

Now let us do some simple arithmetic with a low end of 6% annual electricity generation increase for an available power capacity of 36K MWe:

36,000 Mw = 36,000,000 Kw
Minimum 6 percent increase for each year x 1000 US Dollar investment per Kwe
0.06 x 36mx 1000 = 2.16 billion US Dollars per year investment needed minimum

So we feel that the figure of $1 billion USD per year upfront becomes too prudent for a higher expectation of the growth rate. So who will finance such a big investment package??

Leading local financiers may say that it is easy for Turkish financial capability, but one should not be so sure about that.

Furthermore, nuclear power plants are NOT a solution to power shortages, since we do not know the project execution period. It could take approximately 7 to 20 years to complete a nuclear power plant at this time for many reasons, including legal battles, technology restraints, fabrication difficulties, financing limitations, and regional and international politics.

Blackouts in small regions are currently happening already in Turkey. Although people living in big cities like Istanbul, Ankara, etc. do not face these shortages, it is a reality of life in many towns.

Many of them are classified as power disorders, but those power disorders wander from one area to another in Anatolia. A power failure in one area is repaired (!) and soon after that repair another new power interruption occurs in a neighboring region.

There may be unexpected blackouts (like the one in Paris or New York, sometime in 2005) due to unforeseen technical problems. But according to optimistic public employees of our local Public Transmission Company, the local system has enough reserve capacity till the end of 2012 in their worst-case scenario.

The best-case scenario is that we end the prevailing electricity comfort in 2014 or 2015. But capacity projections always have worst-case flexibility to predict a serious problem in 3-5 years in time. Hence, this projection likely reflects the delay between EMRA licensing and full electricity-producing operation. EMRA licenses, which are issued after March 2009 and are not included in the worst-case scenario, could be generating electricity in 5 years time and could delay the situation to 2015-2016.

In our humble opinion, the ground for an electricity supply crisis has been forming gradually since the beginning of 2006. We may unexpectedly encounter a power shortage crisis, and we turn a blind eye to the facts, in fact the culprits, while searching for other reasons as the cause.

Project financing is too difficult in Turkey, especially at this time of global financial turmoil. Public institutions have limited or almost no capability. Local investments are generally realized by “corporate finance” methods. Local investors risk their own property in order to get proper “corporate financing” at reasonable interest rates, and payment terms.

In the past, we have realized energy power plant investments exceeding 4000 MW installed capacity. Those natural gas-firing cogeneration plants quickly pay for themselves and create more money for further investments in new plants.

However, we do not have the investment environment for “non-recourse” project finance to secure “off taker” contracts. Therefore, it is too difficult to find the necessary project financing for mega projects such as nuclear plants and the plants in Afsin Elbistan. We have lost time in the past and continue to lose more and unable to recover fast in due time.

Turkey will need more local private financing and local contracting, local engineering, if applied. Your writer sincerely feels that our local private investors deserve all our support to complete new power plant investments, provided that they create jobs for the local engineers and for the local qualified manpower.

Please do note that above forecast is your writer’s humble calculation and does reflect the opinions of any public or private institution. Your comments are always welcome.

—
Haluk Direskeneli, Ankara-based Energy Analyst

by JALE ÖZGENTÜRK, BANDIRMA, Balıkesir – Referans, Monday, November 16, 2009

EnerjiSA, a joint venture of Turkey’s Sabancı Group and Austria’s Verbund, is speeding up the building process on its natural-gas combined-cycle plant in Bandırma.

The foundation for the facility was laid Oct. 22 last year in the industrialized town in the northwestern city of Balıkesir.

Güler Sabancı, the chairwoman of Sabancı Holding, and Ahmet Dördüncü, the chief executive officer of the group, both went to Bandırma to examine the power plant last week and have decided to start generation two days earlier than planned.

In response to Sabancı’s question about the launch date of electricity generation, EnerjiSA Project Manager Veli Balat first said electricity generation would start Aug. 1, 2010. Dördüncü asked for it to be ready July 30, a request Balat promised to fulfill. The change will yield an additional 4 million euros in turnover for EnerjiSA.

If the Bandırma Natural-Gas Combined-Cycle Plant, which will cost 660 million euros, begins to operate on time, it will bring self-confidence to the company by allowing EnerjiSA to “prove its maturity,” Sabancı said.

With the launch of the Bandırma plant in 2010, Dördüncü added, Sabancı Holding will become a major actor in the natural-gas sector.

The only plant of its kind in Turkey, the Bandırma facility will reap 700 million euros in turnover by generating 920 megawatts of electricity annually. The daily turnover of the plant will be nearly 2 million euros.

EnerjiSA has invested a total of 660 million euros in the power-plant project, including 500 million euros for machine and equipment, said Selahattin Hakman, the energy group chairman at Sabancı Holding. This investment budget includes road and infrastructure studies as well as land and credit costs.

Cheaper electricity generation

While other natural-gas combined-cycle plants have efficiency rates of at most 52.5 percent when converting 100 units of natural gas into electricity, this ratio will reach 59 percent or even 61 percent at the Bandırma facility. As a result, EnerjiSA will be able to generate electricity 10 percent more cheaply than other power plants in Turkey.

The electricity generated at the Bandırma plant will supply 2.5 percent of Turkey’s overall electricity needs.

Planning to reach 5,000 megawatts of electricity-generation capacity by 2015, EnerjiSA aims to have a 10 percent share in the market. Currently generating 450 megawatts of electricity, EnerjiSA has seven hydroelectric power-plant projects in the works.

The group, which has a thermal-power investment in Tufanbeyli and a wind-energy investment in Çanakkale, will reach 2,000 megawatts of electricity production by the end of 2012, a figure that will rise to 5,000 megawatts in 2015.

EnerjiSA is a fifty-fifty percent joint venture of Sabancı and Verbund, one of the leading companies in Europe and Austria’s largest generator of electricity. The weight of energy in Sabancı Holding will climb from 15 percent to 20 percent with these investments.

The firm, which won the tender for Başkent Dağıtım, an electricity-distribution firm, has 3 million subscribers. Sabancı Holding aims to add 3 million more subscribers with some new tenders in the upcoming period.

According to Hakman, the firm is interested in the tender for the distributor Uludağ Dağıtım, which distributes electricity to the cities of Bursa, Bilecik and Çanakkale.

Though Sabancı Holding aims to become an energy leader and the group is also interested in nuclear energy, it did not offer a bid on Turkey’s first nuclear power-plant tender. “Some changes may take place in nuclear energy laws. Then we may reevaluate the conditions,” said Hakman.

A hydroelectric power plant used for cooling purposes will also be constructed at the natural-gas power plant in Bandırma. Some 10,000 residences will benefit from this innovative hydroelectric facility.

Noting that Turkey’s decision to participate in the Kyoto Protocol was a correct one, Sabancı added: “However, the position we are in is not proper. We are positioned among the developed countries. Turkey has to go to Copenhagen on Dec. 10 well-prepared to negotiate on the protocol.”

Hurriyet Daily News

Dear Energy Professional, Dear Colleagues,

On 7th November 2009 Saturday morning, your writer visited Adana Sugözü ISKEN Thermal power plant premises together with Energy Working Group members of Chamber of Turkish Mechanical Engineers. We had the opportunity to listen/ learn/ visualize important technical and commercial presentations of the host company.

The Plant is first-of its kind imported coal fired power plant which is built and operated by private sector in Turkey since 2003. It has operated in compliance with international technical standards and the competitiveness of the plant is secured by efficient design (>40%) and high availability (>8000 hours per year).

Thus, it provides reliable and efficient power to the grid (9 billion kWh electrical energy per year) in addition to supplying reliable, efficient and competitive power to the national grid, with high concern over environmental protection. Here are the milestones of the plant,

– 1320- megawatt (2 X 660) installed capacity with Siemens Steam Turbine Generator,
– 524.3 kg/s HP Superheated steam generation at 185 bar/541 Celsius in each of total two Benson type Once through forced circulation 3-pressure steam generators,
– Hard coal with high quality as a fuel from South Africa and Columbia under long term purchase agreements (6000 or more kcal per kg LHV)
– USD 1,5 billion foreign direct investment with Contribution to the regional economy
– Reliable and environmental friendly energy program as well as Environmental monitoring and management program

We then passed nearby recultivated fields with new trees planted on. It was an extraordinary application of recultivation on already depleted fields.

Thermal Power plant is owned by German Evonik Steag (51%) and Turkish Oyak group (49%). It is a brand new plant, clean, fully equipped with sufficient capacity flue gas desulphurization systems, with high capacity flue gas dust collecting electrostatic precipitators.

Under the Turkish Environmental laws and regulations, Turkish Power Plants on the Mediterranean shores are to be cooled with only 1 to 3 degree Celsius seawater temperature increase. We are advised that imported coal firing SUGOZU 1320 -megawatt Thermal Power plant in Yumurtalik meets that environmental condition. They have deep sea return water injection from 4 different points with a temperature increase in a small range not to exceed 0.5 degree Celsius.

We have been advised that there is a new ongoing investment under a different commercial identity for a new 800 –megawatt electricity output capacity imported coal firing thermal power investment next to the existing plant. The new plant is expected to be with higher technology design with latest additions for higher efficiency (>45%) and availability, an almost close replica of Evonik Steag plant design in Duisburg Germany. New plant is estimated to cost over 1 billion US Dollars in direct investment.

New plant soil excavation works were witnessed at site. Site construction is expected to start in year 2011. We are told that the site construction subcontractor is not selected yet. There is high concern in the local engineering societies for expectation of maximized employment of local engineering and manpower.

Those companies who are ignorant of local workforce employment expectations, and neglecting local engineering contribution, will surely be deserving the highest local resistance in legal platforms. Hence they will surely be having to much headache during project execution.

We are also told that the company is also planning wind and solar investments in the region for new future. We are pleased to visualize the application and operation of such a big investment on our shores, and wish to have similar state-of-art technologies with high concern over nearby environment, and preferably firing our own local lignite.

Once again we would like to congratulate the Plant Management and the Creditors who put money which made the project realized, and to the engineers/ employees who make the plant to run smoothly, efficiently at maximum availability, high efficiency, with high concern over nearby environment. Your comments are always welcome.
—
Haluk Direskeneli, Ankara based Energy Analyst

Photo- Adana Tufanbeyli plant site- all greenfield

Dear Energy Professional, Dear Colleagues,

Your writer has received press releases from various resources for a new thermal power plant in Adana Tufanbeyli, in Turkey. The new 450 MWe coal fired thermal power plant investment in Adana Tufanbeyli is delayed for 3 years due to prevailing economic crisis. The project will be started in the second half of 2010 which was planned in year 2007 earlier.

The field related hydro geological studies were continuing in the field at Tufanbeyli. Plant is expected to consume 7.2 million tons of nearby local lignite per year, and will generate 3 billion kilowatt – hour of electric energy.

Investor Company officials advised that Negotiation work is in progress with companies of South Korea, Japan, for the key plant equipment supply and the construction. Plant operation will be in compliance with the latest EU environmental rules and regulations.

Local Holding company started planning to construct thermal power plant in 2006 in Adana Tufanbeyli with an investment budget of 480 million dollars. 100 hectares of land expropriation is already completed. Investment will be in build-operate model.

Coal mine has 214 million tons of proven lignite reserves in the region as reported in Turkish Coal Board reports. Available lignite coal has 1350 kcal per kg lower heating value with 44 percent humidity, 26 percent ash, 2.2 percent sulphur in average. Overburden / coal ratio is 8. Coal price is estimated to be 10.53 US Dollars per ton.

Available local coal is too difficult to fire in the steam boiler therefore special care in basic design is necessary. CFB and IGCC designs are recommended in lieu of conventional pulverized coal firing. Coal should be tested upfront.

This basic design activity cannot be left at the mercy of the foreign designers. There is no luxury to leave the design control to the vendor. Investor Company has to have basic design programs and local engineering capability to monitor completely all phases of the project execution from their home offices.

It is reported that investment will create employment for approximately 400 people in the region. Your writer is always happy to get such news on new energy investments in the local energy market, provided that

They are found/ registered/ accepted as environmentally friendly by the Ministry,
They have completed all obligations for Environmental Impact Assessment Reports,
They have received their license from the Local Regulatory Board,
They are designed by local engineering companies,
They are fabricated in the local fabrication plants,
They are installed by our local contractors,
They are commissioned and supervised by our local engineering power,
They are operated by our own staff,
and regularly checked by our own labor force in programmed maintenance.

We understand that project financing is secured by the investor partners, but loan allocation will be delayed to year 2010. Project financing is difficult in Turkey, especially at this time of global financial turmoil. Public institutions have limited or almost no capability.

The good side of that is Turkey will need more local private financing, and local contracting, local engineering. Your writer sincerely feels that our local private investors deserve all our support to complete those new power plant investments.

Above article is to be presumed a sort of executive summary for an important local thermal power plant investment free-of- charge, which would otherwise cost thousands of US dollars if that job would be given to an international engineering consultancy firm.

We will be too pleased to receive your comments.

Haluk Direskeneli, Ankara based Energy Analyst
http://www.turkishweekly.net/columnist/3210/some-thoughts-on-adana-tufanbeyli-thermal-power-plant.html

Dear All

PM told to the residents of Hasankeyf and to the nation that he would not allow the 12,000 year old Hasankeyf be buried under water with the building of the Ilısu Dam and Hydro Electric power plant and yet afterwards attended the cermonies for the start of construction of the dam.

Ajda Pekkan gave a concert at Hasankeyf last Sunday pleading for stopping the construction of the dam as presently designed.

Question, do we need ILISU?

ILISU is required for more electricity generation for sure. However is it necessary at that point with that capacity? That is the real question

ILISU could have been constructed a bit earlier with two individual hydroelectric dams instead of one unit , by this way you avoid unnecessary flooding of ancient sites, but that is costlier at this time. In future technology will obviously be improved and the construction will be cheaper, financing will be easier.

It is not easy to declare that it is bad or good. You have choices. It is not so easy to judge from the other end of the globe that ILISU is bad.

Although every action we take, every time we move or speak, has some effect on the environment, it is the major effects that must be addressed if we are to act as responsible citizens of an all-too-fragile world.

We should design and supply which does have an appreciable effect on the environment around us. It should be our policy and our concern that any impact on the environment be minimized as best we know how.

We should continue to apply the best technical solutions to these concerns, with maximized local engineering capability and make best use of our local hydro, wind, solar, fossil fuel resources. We will not compromise our designs with inefficient solutions when we know a better way.

We should work with our customers and the community to provide the cleanest, safest, most up to date technology in the equipment that we supply.

We are citizens of this world and intend to act responsibly in it.

—
Haluk Direskeneli, Ankara based Energy Analyst