اثر خصوصی سازی توزیع برق بر قیمت برق در ترکیه:آیا هدف آزادسازی محقق شده است؟

Various electricity reforms have been adopted by a number of countries within the last 2 decades. Turkey, as one of those countries, has restructured its electricity market and intensively privatized the distribution companies. As one of the main targets of the liberalization efforts in the sector was announced to be reduced consumer prices, it is a matter of interest to look at the related developments after privatizations. Hence, this study attempts to explore the impact of power distribution privatization in Turkey on the national end-user electricity prices. Results of the analysis suggest that privatization of electricity distribution companies has not yielded the expected retail price declines within the first 4 years of the program. Whereas wholesale tariffs exhibit a reduction in the rate of 10%, retail tariffs show an increase of 5.9% within the period in question. Besides, the unstable patterns of the two tariffs imply that the market is not yet ready for the automatic pricing mechanism planned to be implemented based on a cost-reflective methodology. Therefore, results indicate that the factors behind the unsatisfactory outcomes of the program should be explored in order for the privatization efforts in the Turkish electricity distribution market to serve the purpose.

In the past 2 decades, liberalization in the electricity sector has speeded up and a number of reforms have been put in place in a number of countries throughout the world. The main motivation behind those reforms has been efficiency gains leading to cost reductions, which are assumed to benefit consumers through price reductions and improvements in the quality of service. On the other hand, privatization of utilities has proved to be a complex issue, often involving three separate stages, one of which is obviously a shift in ownership from the public to private hands. The second is the restructuring of the companies, while the third one is a change in the way the sector operates, usually involving an adoption of competitive procedures. Depending on the combination of these factors, liberalization tends to bring about significant changes in the way businesses are conducted (Domah and Pollitt, 2001). However, outcomes of any individual restructuring and privatization process in a given industry and in a given country have the potential to be highly variable (Pollitt, 1999). That is why each liberalization effort has to be designed and evaluated based on its own dynamics. Outcomes of the privatization process in the sector are explored in a number of studies which analyze certain countries. Ranganathan (1993) discusses the privatization in the Indian electricity sector and underlines the problems encountered due to unexpected consequences of privatization in application, particularly through higher prices charged by private companies compared to public power. In other words, he draws attention to the fact that the goals and outcomes of privatization may conflict. Domah and Pollitt (2001) assess the developments following the privatization of 12 regional electricity companies responsible for the distribution and supply of electricity in England and Wales. The social cost and benefit analysis they conduct conclude that the liberalization activities in question did yield significant net benefits for the society which were unevenly distributed across time and groups in society. In this regard, the main winner of the concerning process is found to be the government, whereas consumers turned out not to experience a significant welfare gain in terms of electricity prices. Furthermore, Silvestre et al. (2010) investigate the effects of privatization of distribution companies in the Northeast of Brazil and find out that privatization well contributed to the privatized firms in financial terms but not to the quality of service provided to consumers. Therefore they conclude that some privatization experiences might possibly be ugly, where the process only benefits the investor but might harm the consumers. Kim and Kim (2008) explore the impact of privatization of electricity generation companies in Korea and discover that electricity prices did not fall after the reforms. Similar to the findings of Silvestre et al. (2010), the profitability of the privatized companies in the study are found to have been affected positively, though. As can be seen from the cases above, within the scope of the global liberalization trend, electric power reforms have been embarked both in developed and developing countries with the purpose of transition into a competitive electricity market. It should be noted at this point that for both kinds of economies, the process of a reform program needs to consist of the following two stages: unbundling of the integrated structure of the power supply and divesting of the state's ownership at least in most of the electricity generation as well as distribution segments of the market (Bacon and Besant-Jones, 2001). The Turkish electricity market has gone through a similar series of changes in the last 2 decades too, with a motivation of liberalization in order to attract private sector investments and maximize efficiency. In this sense, as a most recent initiative, Turkish electricity distribution network administered by Turkish Electricity Distribution Co. (TEDAS) has been divided into 21 areas to be privatized based on the Electric Power Sector Reform and Privatization Strategy Document as of March 2004. The main objective stated in the strategy document was unsurprisingly quite similar to the one targeted by the Electricity Market Law enacted in 2001: To ensure delivery of electricity to consumers in an adequate, high-quality, uninterrupted and low cost manner. The privatization process of the power distribution companies was effectively launched in 2009 and completed in 12 regions by the beginning of 2013. As stated by the Privatization Administration of the Prime Ministry, the primary outcomes desired with the privatization in the sector can be summarized with the following properties: • Lowering costs through effective and efficient operation of electricity distribution assets. • Decreasing loss and theft ratios, by reducing technical losses in distribution and preventing illegal use, and hence • Reducing consumer prices by reflecting all the gains obtained onto consumers. Plus, it should be mentioned that within the framework of the market restructuring program, a new pricing methodology was planned to be put in effect to make the prices cost-reflective, particularly after the transition period. In this regard, it is a matter of interest to assess how overlapping the purposes and the outcomes of the liberalization efforts in the sector have been within that period of 4 years. Hence, this paper explores the issue in terms of the eventual outcome of the program, which can be described as “consumer retail prices”. For this purpose, the trends followed by the wholesale and retail prices in the specified period are demonstrated and the reflection of any change in the former on the latter is further analyzed. In sum, the goal of this paper is twofold: Firstly, it attempts to analyze the electricity price changes following privatization in the electricity distribution sector in Turkey to determine the existence of any desired positive effects on consumer prices. Secondly, it questions the potential applicability of the cost-reflective pricing mechanism designed within the context of the process, based on the experience during the privatization period so far. To our knowledge, no studies have yet assessed the effects or the success of the liberalization in the Turkish electricity distribution sector. Therefore, our study would be a significant contribution to the literature in the relevant field. Besides, the fact that we evaluate the existing policy and its applications with the support of a data analysis increases the reliability of the conclusions derived, which would be quite beneficial for the Turkish policy makers.

The liberalization movement in electricity markets witnessed throughout the world for the last 2 decades was also initiated in Turkey, in 1993. The motivation underlying that movement can be described as lower costs and reduced consumer prices followed by increasing efficiency obtained through the process. The first step realized in this regard was the unbundling of the wholly state-owned electricity sector into two institutions by creating a separate distribution company, namely TEDAS. The next milestone within the scope of the program was the separation of generation, transmission and wholesale functions under three companies in the year of 2001. Hence the sector has been divided into four entities after that year. Further, by the Electric Power Sector Reform and Privatization Strategy Document announced in 2004, the electricity distribution network administered by TEDAS has been divided into 21 areas to be privatized. The main expectation from the program was declared as lower tariffs on consumers due to enhanced productivity and decreased loss and theft. In this framework, a new pricing methodology called Automatic Tariff Mechanism was developed in the meantime to reflect the costs associated on prices. Privatizations in the Turkish power distribution market started in 2009 and by the end of 2011 the number of the privatized companies in the sector has reached 12. With no further privatizations realized in the year of 2012, the number has stayed at the same level as of early 2013. In this sense, it is a matter of interest to explore if the program has attained any outcomes it had targeted within that period of 4 years. Interestingly, however, no studies have been conducted on this critical issue so far. Thus, this study attempts to answer this question by employing an a methodology including certain economic indicators. The key concluding remarks of the study can be summarized as follows: • Although the main goal of the reforms has been achieving price reductions and hence improving consumer welfare, privatization of the electricity distribution market in Turkey has not yet resulted in any price declines on retail (end-user) prices during the transition period. • It is observed that the changes in retail prices do not harmonize with those in wholesale prices. This inconsistency could also be due to the absence of a cost-based pricing mechanism in the distribution sector. In this sense, the Turkish electricity market does not seem to be ready yet for the automatic pricing mechanism which is planned to be put in effect based on a cost-reflective methodology. • The fact that the wholesale prices in real terms have decreased in the relevant period while real retail prices have risen refers to a corresponding increase in the distribution tariffs charged by EDCs, which is not quite compatible with the targets of the program. In sum, this paper brings up a clear portrait that reveals the weak effects of the privatization program in the Turkish electric power distribution industry during the transition period by employing an analysis of certain financial criteria. Thus, it provides an analytical background for evidence-based policy making in the area. Potential reasons underlying the problem that are deliberated in the discussion section of the study would help policy makers tackle the issue in more detail in order to increase the effectiveness of the liberalization policy. Due to data limitation, the methodology and the findings in this paper solely focus on the effects of privatization in the market from the perspective of consumer welfare. As a topic of future research, findings could be enhanced by using a social cost and benefit approach to measure the impact of the privatization on the whole society, including the firms and the government, in case the data needed to evaluate all the aspects of the issue become available.