UEDAŞ General Manager Gökay Fatih Danacı emphasized that they made an investment of 1.2 billion lira, 2.8 billion lira of which was in Bursa, and noted that this figure will increase to 3.7 billion lira by the end of the year.
We made a total investment of 2023 billion 2 million TL in 81. 1 billion 219 million TL of this was made in Bursa. This corresponds to a rate of 59 percent of our total investments. We continue our investments rapidly in 2024. We plan to invest 3.7 billion TL in our region by the end of the year.
What do you think is the importance of communication in technical improvements made to increase consumer satisfaction? Do you receive feedback and suggestions from consumers?
We manage the satisfaction system with a structure that constantly measures and monitors our satisfaction rate and implements the necessary improvements moment by moment. Consumer satisfaction is one of the most important issues for us. Our main priority in 2023 was the digitalization of all our processes. In this context, we have implemented many innovations. We have incorporated many new activities such as remote reading systems and end-to-end digitalization of investment and project processes. We continue our work in this context in 2024. We receive consumer feedback 13/7 through 24 different communication channels, process it and implement solutions. Through our call center, social media accounts and other official channels, consumers can directly convey their demands, complaints and suggestions to us and find solutions to their problems. Additionally, Public Communication is one of our priority issues. In this context, by communicating directly with our headmen, we can quickly respond to the energy needs and demands of local administrations.
Has energy consumption increased in your area of responsibility? At the same time (during this period), did electrical energy production increase in Turkey?
Our region is one of the favorite areas of our country with its developing industry and growing population. This creates an increase in energy needs every year. Both our investment rates and energy demand are increasing day by day. In this context, we, as UEDAŞ, distributed 2022 GWh of energy in 13.1. The lion's share of this consumption belonged to Bursa with 7.7 GWh. This corresponds to a rate of 59 percent, similar to investment. Of course, this figure is much higher with OIZs. In 2023, we have 13.4 GWh of energy distributed in our region. Bursa's share is 7.9 GWh. This figure corresponds to an increase of 2023 percent for 2,29. We have similar predictions for 2024. We expect the increase in energy demand in our region to continue this year.
How did your investments for 2024 start? What kind of investments does UEDAŞ plan to make until the end of the year?
Our primary goal is to meet the energy needs of newly formed and developing regions. We continue our work continuously for this. The number of our transformers, which is 2024 thousand 29 as of April 121, is increasing according to the need and its capacity is growing. In addition, the maintenance and development of our 54 thousand 633 km long power lines continues uninterruptedly. In addition to all these, accelerated urban transformation efforts also create additional energy needs, which is, of course, another issue among our 2024 priorities. In addition, we are rapidly continuing our infrastructure work to meet the demand with the increase in electric vehicles. Of course, the development of our technological infrastructure is another important area in our investment plans for the new year.
In terms of employment, how many employees do you have? Do you plan to increase this number in the new year? Do you have any efforts to increase women and youth employment?
We have a total of 862 colleagues, including 1772 permanent staff and 4 contractors, working in 2 provinces on behalf of UEDAŞ. As new residential areas are formed every year, we continue our work for uninterrupted energy by increasing the number of our maintenance, repair and breakdown teams. 634 percent of our employees are under 28 years old. We have a staff that gets younger every year. The employment of young people in this field is a great gain for both our region and the energy field. We are also carrying out a lot of work to ensure that young people and women take part in the energy field. We have many female managers in the white-collar sector, including the CFO of our group. We also have special plans for our in-company manager training activities, student communities and the promotion of women specializing in the field of electricity. Our support in this area is among our first priorities.
Dear Mr. Danacı, do you carry out projects that will provide social benefits regarding the future of young people?
As UEDAŞ, we attach great importance to projects that will provide social benefits. We carry out all our projects within this scope and see social benefit and development as our primary goal. We have been continuing our awareness projects such as Transformers Talking and Pink Lamps for many years. Thanks to all these efforts, we completed the year 2023 with 2 grand awards. Of course, our important projects for young people continue. We implemented our "Carry Your Energy to the Future" project so that our students, especially those studying at the primary school level, have more information about energy saving and efficiency and have the awareness to guide their families. The project, which is in its 4th year, will continue in the new year to instill awareness of savings and efficiency in young people with VR glasses and fun games, especially in rural schools in our region.
