Data-center law in Turkey

Law No. 3194 (Zoning Law), Arts. 1, 2, 3, 49

Applies to both

The Zoning Law requires every plan and every public or private building constructed within or outside a municipality's boundaries and adjacent area to conform to this Law. It also bars use of any site for a purpose contrary to a development plan at any scale, the conditions of its zone, or a regulation.

A site is developed under a hierarchy of plans this Law establishes, a master development plan and, beneath it, an implementation development plan, and a data-centre building is subject to this framework as an ordinary private building rather than through any data-infrastructure-specific category, since the Law names none.

The Law's own commencement article puts a short, enumerated list of articles into force on the publication date and puts its other articles, including these general provisions, into force six months after that date, without stating the day that computation produces.

Source: Full text of law

Law No. 2872 (Environmental Law), Arts. 1, 2, 10, 11, 20, 33

Effective 1983-08-11 · Applies to both

The Environmental Law's Article 10 requires an institution, organisation, or enterprise whose planned activity could cause environmental problems to prepare an Environmental Impact Assessment Report or a project introduction file, and bars any approval, permit, incentive, or building and use licence for that project, and the start of investment or tendering, until a positive Environmental Impact Assessment decision issues.

Article 11 separately requires a facility, enterprise, or settlement not permitted to discharge waste directly or indirectly into a receiving environment to treat and dispose of that waste to the standards a regulation sets and to obtain the permits the regulation requires. That same duty ties the building-permit stage itself to proof that this obligation will be met.

Article 20 sets an administrative fine of two percent of project cost for starting construction or operation before completing the Environmental Impact Assessment process. The Law entered into force on the date of its Official Gazette publication, 11 August 1983.

Source: Full text of law

Law No. 6446 (Electricity Market Law), Arts. 1, 3, 5

Effective 2013-03-30 · Applies to both

The Electricity Market Law's stated purpose (Art. 1) is a competitive, financially sound, and transparent electricity market, independently regulated, that supplies electricity to consumers adequately, reliably, and at low cost. An eligible consumer (serbest tüketici) is one whose consumption exceeds a regulator-set threshold, which would reach a large industrial consumer such as a data centre.

Article 5(2) lets a supply company sell electricity, wholesale or retail, to an eligible consumer anywhere in the country without regional restriction, rather than confining that consumer to its local distribution utility's regulated retail tariff.

Connection of a new facility to the transmission or distribution grid runs through a published-capacity process: the transmission system operator (TEİAŞ) and distribution companies publish, each year, the regional generation facility capacity that can be connected to their systems for the following five and ten years, and a connection opinion is given only within those published capacities (Art. 23), with retail and connection tariffs approved by the energy regulator on a non-discriminatory basis among equal parties.

No provision of the Law names a data centre or any comparable large consumption facility as a distinct category, and none addresses water use or air emissions.

Source: Full text of law

Law No. 5627 (Energy Efficiency Law), Arts. 1, 2, 3, 7, 19

Effective 2007-05-02 · Applies to both

The Energy Efficiency Law's stated purpose is increasing efficiency in the use of energy resources and energy for their effective use, for preventing waste, and for easing the burden of energy costs on the economy while protecting the environment. The Law reaches industrial enterprises, buildings, electricity generation facilities, transmission and distribution networks, transport, agriculture, and the service sector.

The Law defines an 'industrial enterprise' as an establishment producing goods, other than a licensed electricity generator, whose annual total energy consumption is 1,000 tonnes of oil equivalent or more, and Article 7 requires such an enterprise to appoint an energy manager from among its employees.

Separately, the management of a commercial building, a service building, or a public-sector building whose total construction area is at least 20,000 square metres or whose annual energy consumption is 500 tonnes of oil equivalent or more must appoint an energy manager or engage energy-manager services, and a data centre of that footprint or consumption would fall within the 'service building' category on the ordinary meaning of that term, though the Law does not use the term itself. These provisions took effect on the Law's publication date, 2 May 2007.

Source: Full text of law

Law No. 3194 (Zoning Law), Arts. 21, 22, 49

Applies to both

Every building within the Zoning Law's scope must obtain a building permit from the municipality or the governorate before construction, subject to the Article 26 exemption. Any change to an already-permitted building requires a new permit, so a data-centre building is subject to this permit duty as an ordinary private building rather than through any data-infrastructure-specific category.

On a complete and correct application, the municipality or governorate must issue the building permit within thirty days; where the application is incomplete or incorrect, the deficiencies must be communicated in writing within fifteen days. The Law's own commencement article puts a short, enumerated list of articles into force on the publication date and puts its other articles, including these two, into force six months after that date, without stating the day that computation produces.

Source: Full text of law