Amendments to Energy Legislation

“Regulation Amending the Regulation on the Technical Evaluation of Applications for Electricity Generation Based on Biomass Energy” and “Regulation Amending the Regulation on Renewable Energy Resource Areas” were published by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (“Ministry”) in the Official Gazette No. 33102 on December 9, 2025.

1) Regulation Amending the Regulation on the Technical Evaluation of Applications for Electricity Generation Based on Biomass Energy

The regulation in question not only includes applications with biomass as an auxiliary source in the scope of technical evaluations conducted by the General Directorate of Energy Affairs (“General Directorate”) for biomass-based power plants, but also introduces numerous changes in the technical evaluation process for applications.

According to the regulation, if documents sent to General Directorate are incomplete, incorrect, or not prepared in the specified manner, 30 days’ extension will no longer be granted to reapply to the relevant institutions to remedy the irregularities. Technical evaluation of the application will not be made under the circumstances.

Furthermore, if the relevant Ministry provides an opinion letter regarding the inadequacy of the sources and quantities declared to be procured from the Biomass Source Area (“BSA”) and/or Biomass Source Supplier (“BSS”), no technical assessment will be conducted.

The sources and quantities declared to be procured from BSAs and/or BSSs, which are already being used by Biomass Power Plants (“BPP”) that were granted a pre-license or license prior to the entry into force of the Regulation on the Technical Evaluation of Biomass-Based Electricity Generation Applications (“Biomass Regulation”), or by BPPs that have received a letter under the Regulation on Unlicensed Electricity Generation in the Electricity Market, will no longer constitute an obstacle in the technical evaluation process. BESs that were granted a pre-license or license before the entry into force of the Biomass Regulation shall have their required documents for auxiliary source applications sent by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority to the General Directorate.

In addition to the previous regulation, Regulation requires applicants to obtain opinion letters from the relevant ministries, by submitting a letter declaring the type of biomass source they will use, the annual usage amount, and BSA/BSS information, to proceed to technical evaluation.

2) Regulation Amending the Regulation on Renewable Energy Resource Areas

The regulation in question introduces amendments to the Renewable Energy Resource Areas Regulation (“RERA Regulation”) regarding the tender procedure and pre-licensing process within the scope of the allocation of Renewable Energy Resource Areas (“RERA”).

For RERA allocation, among the applications submitted to the commission established by the Ministry, the most “suitable” bidder, rather than the lowest, will now be invited to sign the RERA Usage Rights Agreement (“Agreement”) following a competition among those who meet the necessary criteria.

In addition, the 15-day period for initiating the pre-licensing process has been changed to commence from the date the Agreement is signed, to the date the legal entity that wins the tender and signs the contract is notified to EMRA.

The procedure to be followed in the event of a change in the partnership structure of the legal entity that wins the tender has also been added to the RERA Regulation. Accordingly, changes in the partnership structure will be subject to the approval of the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources before the entire electricity generation facility commences operation; after that, notification to the Ministry will suffice for any changes made.