Is daylight saving time coming back? Minister Bayraktar explains

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar has made a statement regarding the daylight saving time practice, which has been a subject of debate since 2016. 

According to the report in the Türkiye newspaper, responding to a written parliamentary question from a deputy regarding daylight saving time, Minister Bayraktar stated the following:

“As a result of the analyses conducted by ITU, it has been determined that keeping our country permanently in the GMT+3 time zone allows the majority of the population to benefit from daylight for a longer period and makes a significant contribution to energy efficiency. In this context, it has been revealed that with the year-round daylight saving time, the time spent in darkness for each work interval has decreased by 64 hours compared to the previous time system. Furthermore, the same analyses showed that negative effects such as anxiety, stress, and depression caused by time changes are experienced less, and in line with these results, the permanent time system was adopted. It has been observed that with the daylight saving time, the dark time period coinciding with evening work and school departures is reduced, and considering the daylight hours during the winter season, our citizens benefit more from daylight, and higher savings rates are achieved during the hours when it gets dark compared to previous years”

"ENERGY SAVINGS HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED"

Reminding that the daylight saving time practice began in 2016, Bayraktar noted the following:

"Between October 2016, when the practice began, and October 2023, approximately 10 billion kilowatt-hours of energy savings have been achieved, and the monetary equivalent of this consumption in residential three-time-of-use tariffs is 15.48 billion liras. In line with all these developments, our Ministry has no work underway to change the current time system"

News Source: 12punto