The consumption of electrical energy; with its easy use, possibility of conversion into the other sorts of energy and wide spread availability in daily life constitutes one of the most important indicators of the development level of the countries.

With the to produce more electricity which had been discovered by the and of 19.century and disposed to the service of man kind for lighting purposes at the beginning also putting new and renewable, wind, solar, biomass and similar resources to use, in addition to the primary resources, has been initiated as per the growing demand.

Electricity usage in daily life had been started in 1878. The First Power Plant was put into operation in London in 1882.The first electric generator was a 2 kW dynamo connected to the water mill installed in Tarsus in 1902. The first bigger power plant was installed in İsatanbul, Silahtarağa in 1913.

When reached 1935; Etibank, Mineral Research and Exploration Institution (MTA) and Electrical Works Survey Administration(EİEİ) had been founded, later the Bank of Provinces and State Hydroulic Works (DSİ) were established. So, the installed capacity had been 126.2 MW at that time, while the generation was 213 million kWh and the number of the electrified provinces were 43.

In 1948, Çatalağzı Thermal Power Plant was put into service and the network of Istanbul had been reinforced by a 154 kV transmission line erected in 1952.

The improvements in the generation stage were also introduced in transmission network and thus the country had entirely been netted with interconnected transmission lines meanwhile thousands of transformers of various capacity and types were equipped.

The construction and operation of the power plants by state utilities and private sector entities were started in 1950’s. Those were Çukurova Electric Co.(ÇEAŞ) and KEPEZ Electric Co. established as concessionary firms to feed Adana-İçel and Antalya provinces respectively. At the beginning of 1950, installed capacity of Turkey had reached 407.8 MW while generation 789.5 million kWh.

In 1970, growing generation, distribution and consumption of electricity as well as the necessity of expanding the respective services made it essential the forming of an institutional structure and thus TEK (Turkish Electricity Authority) was established. So, the integrity in the power sector was ensured, with the exception of municipalities and the Bank of Provinces. At that time, the installed capacity reached 2234.9 MW while the generation 8.6 billion kWh levels.

Turkey was impacted too by the worldwide energy crisis in the years between 1970-1980, and the supply-demand balance was spoiled due to largely outer-dependence on the fuels of thermal power plants so, compulsory electricity disruptions were applied. Despite to above inconveniences, Turkey installed capacity reached 5118.7 MW, while generation 23.3 billion kWh in 1980.

In the year 1982 all the electrical installations and networks belonging to Municipalities and Unions were transferred to TEK. After that all energy sales including to villages has been carried out by TEK. In this year installed capacity and energy generation had reached 6638.6 MW and 26.6 billion kWh respectively. By the year 1970 only 7% of total number of villages were electrified and in 1982 this percentage had increased to 61%.

In 1984, the monopoly of TEK was lifted up and the private entities formed against permissions were also given the opportunity to intervene generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. In the same year by re-organizing its legal status, bodies and structure, TEK had gained the identity of state-owned enterprise.

About 10 private entities were entitied to do the generation, transmission, distribution and trade of electricity within their legal district boundaries between 1988-1992. At the same time also ÇEAŞ and KEPEZ among the concessionary firms were entitied to generate, transmit, distribute and do the trading of electricity in their area of service.

Turkish Electricity Authority had been incorporated in the scope of the privatization by the Decree in force Law No=513 and dated 13.8.1993 which was issued 23 years after its founding whose relations with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources would be on going. As a continuation of this arrangement, it was split into two separate State Owned Enterprises, namely “Turkish Electricity Generation Transmission Co” TEAŞ and Turkish Electricity Distribution Co” TEDAŞ, by the Act of the Council of Ministers.

By the Electricity Market Law No:4628, issued in the Official Gazette dated 3^rd March, 2001 concerning the restructuring of the energy sector, it has been targeted the establishment of financially strong, stable and transparent electricity market under competitive and special law provisions for a sufficient, high-quality, continuous, low-cost and environment friendly supply of electricity to the disposal of consumers as well as the maintaining an independent regulatory and supervisory framework.

This Law covers the generation, transmission, distribution, wholesale, retail and respective services of electricity including its import-export and also the rights and responsibilities of all real and legal persons connected with those services and establishment of a Regulatory Body of Electricity Market and its running procedures and principals as well as the procedures to be followed for the privatization of the electricity generation and distribution assets.

By the Decree of Council of Ministers No:2001/2026 and dated 05.02.2001 which was issued in the Official Gazette dated 2^nd March, 2001, TEAŞ has been decided to be restructured to form 3 State-owned Public Enterprise namely; Turkish Electricity Transmission Co., Turkish Electricity Generation Co. and Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting Co.

Within the direction of that decision, main duties of the Company which has started to function as of 1.10.2001 in the new market are verified to construct and operate the transmission facilities which transports the electricity produced to the consumption spots, to operate the power system, in other words to perform the load dispatch, to establish a communication sub-structure suitable to the new market structure and to operate the market depending on its exact opening i.e. to carry out the balancing and conciliation activities of the market.