Turkey's electricity import bill for the January-June period of 2019 decreased by 55.14% compared to the same period of 2018, according to Turkish Statistical Institute's (Turkstat) data.
The data shows that Turkey paid nearly $13.53 million for electricity imports in the first half of 2019, compared to $30.16 million for the same period of 2018.
The amount of electricity imported between January and June reached nearly 332.12 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), compared to 780.86 million kWh in the first half of 2018.
Turkey bought electricity from five countries - Greece, Czechia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Azerbaijan, the data shows, out of which Bulgaria held the biggest share of electricity exports to Turkey.
Bulgaria bought nearly 232.34 million kWh of electricity out of a total amount of 332.12 million kWh in the first half of 2019 paying $9.95 million over this period.
Georgia followed Bulgaria with 12.69 million kWh of imports for which Turkey paid nearly $2.95 million.
Azerbaijan, Greece and Czechia followed with 23.49 million, 6.24 million and 294 thousand kWh of electricity imports, respectively. Turkey paid $1.19 million to Azerbaijan, $265.960 to Greece and $12.770 to Czechia for imports in the first half of the year.
June saw the highest electricity imports in the January-June period in 2019 when Turkey imported 78.63 million kWh of electricity and paid $2.47 million.
By Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr