Resilience in Power Generation: Two Case Studies from Turkey

There is a growing interest in improving resilience in power systems to extreme climate events because of societies’ high dependence on electrical energy and its vital role in economies. Resilience, which is closely linked with sustainability and the environmental, social, and governance (ESG), is especially important during the power system planning and implementation, and enhancement can accelerate the country’s energy transition. In this chapter, we examined the lignite-fired Çan and hydroelectric Eğlence power plants as two cases in Turkey that can reveal the effects of extreme weather/climate events on electricity generation. This study used hourly air temperature data for Çan thermal power plants and daily precipitation data for Eğlence hydropower plants. The results of the investigation confirm the findings of previous studies: extreme weather/climatic conditions that occur because of global climate change cause considerable losses in electricity generation. Efficiency losses in power generation systems severely undermine Turkey’s energy supply security and economy, especially given the country’s high level of energy-import dependency. It is impossible to design every power plant to resist all possible events at the same time, but the effect of extreme climatic events can be reduced. We strongly recommend that the concept of resilience be immediately taken into consideration in designing new power plant investments and in adapting already existing ones to make them more flexible to any abrupt changes in climate. Resilience should top the energy agenda to enhance supply security and decrease dependence on foreign sources.