DECISION BRIEF
What this desk follows
VAP — Verimlilik Artırıcı Proje — is the Energy Ministry’s investment grant for efficiency projects in industry, covering a share of the investment cost. It is a project grant: you apply with a defined measure and a calculated saving.
EKA is a bill-side support that pays a share of energy costs against the qualifying criteria for the year, on an annual application window rather than a project basis.
Energy performance contract support is the third route, open to buildings as well as industry. It funds the contracting model itself, which is what lets an organisation take the measure without carrying the capex.
Around these sit general-purpose programmes that may fund efficiency equipment — development agency grants, KOSGEB and green credit lines — plus waste-heat recovery projects whose value depends on the measured thermal process and recovery design.
Why it matters for Turkish business
Built for: Industrial energy managers, operations, facilities and maintenance teams, ESCOs, sustainability leads and finance teams appraising efficiency investments.
Statutory duties also exist: energy manager appointment, periodic energy audits and reporting sit under Energy Efficiency Law No. 5627 and its regulation. Net Zero does not restate the thresholds here because it has not verified the current regulation text — check the Energy Ministry before relying on a number you read anywhere, including here.
Commercially, the decision is usually between a VAP application and an energy performance contract. VAP suits a company that has the capital and wants a grant against it; a performance contract suits one that does not and is willing to share the saving.
Measured efficiency improvements can lower Scope 1 and 2 emissions for reporting, reduce embedded emissions for CBAM and reduce future allowance exposure under an emissions trading system. The value depends on the baseline, energy mix and applicable boundary.
What to do next
- Get a measured baseline before applying to anything. Every one of these routes is assessed on a calculated saving, and an unmeasured baseline is the usual reason an application fails.
- Match the route to your balance sheet: VAP if you can fund the capex, a performance contract if you cannot.
- Check the current EKA window and criteria before assuming last year’s terms — this is an annual scheme and it moves.
- If you run a thermal process, screen waste-heat recovery alongside lighting and motors, then rank measures using a measured baseline, capital cost and verified saving potential.
Coverage boundary
Building energy performance certificates and the residential side are not tracked here, and statutory audit thresholds under Law No. 5627 are deliberately not restated.