Turkey
will sell four power plants
with capacity totaling more than 3,000 megawatts under a “big energy
privatization drive” this year by the government that may attract investors
from
Europe
and the
Persian Gulf
, the energy regulator said.
“There is a total portfolio of 16,000 megawatts of power plants to be sold,”
Hasan Koktas, head of the regulator, said in an interview at his office in
Ankara
on Friday. “
Auctions will start with four thermal power plants and bids will be
invited for them this year,” he said.
Turkey
wants to lessen state
ownership in energy production and distribution and raise cash and draw foreign
investors to an industry where demand is rising about 8 percent a year. The
government’s asset sale agency expects to raise more than $7 billion this year,
the majority from sell-offs of power distribution grids, equivalent to 20
percent of the projected budget deficit, according to government data. The
auctions of the plants, Hamitabad, Seyitomer, Soma and Can in western
Turkey
, will be completed this
year, Koktas said. (Bloomberg)