Europe's second largest electricity network in Turkey

Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said Wednesday that the electricity network in Turkey was the second largest in Europe with its capacity of service to 95 million people. "We operate the distribution and transmission line of electricity exceeding 1 million kilometres," said Turkish minister speaking at the handover and signing ceremony of Dicle Electricity Distribution Company. There are 21 distribution zones across Turkey, said Yildiz and added, "There is an increase of 8.1 percent in installed capacity and 5.2 percent in consumption, which means energy growth is twice more than the economic growth." Stating the amount of stray and loss of electricity dropped to 9.4 percent, excluding eastern Van province and Dicle region, Yildiz said the amount was under the average of 27 European countries. Along with Yildiz, Minister of Finance Mehmet Simsek, Minister of Development Cevdet Yilmaz, and Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Animal Breeding Mehdi Eker also attended the ceremony. "We will increase our installed capacity to 78,000 megawatt within 5 years, while focusing on the renewable energy at the same time," said Yilmaz. "With our geostrategic location, we will also strengthen the position of being a transition and terminal country in energy," noted Yilmaz, adding that certain new technologies in energy would be operated as well, including atomic power.