Electrical energy prices and losses respect to Turkish social-economic situations

Electricity is a basic part of nature and it is one of the most widely used forms of energy. Electricity, which is a secondary energy source, can be generated from the conversion of other sources of energy, such as coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power and renewable resources. Electricity prices have a deep impact on the competitiveness of a country's industry. Some electricity losses may occur during the process of transmission and distribution from generators to consumers. Generally there are two types of losses, one is technical losses which cover transmission losses and the other is non-technical losses including distribution losses and the incidence of illegal usage. The aim of this paper is to present the electricity usage and prices and is also to focus on the electricity losses occur both technical and non-technical means. An "electricity losses map" was produced to illustrate the electricity losses. For this purpose, a vector-based Geographic Information System (GIS) software package Arc GIS 8.3 was employed to map the data. The rate of losses within the electricity provided to the national network was about 19% in Turkey. The incidence of illegal usage and hence the rate of non-technical losses could be reduced dramatically through establishing regular action.