Türkiye’s Building Energy Performance Regulation (Binalarda Enerji Performansı Yönetmeliği, “BEP”) is the core legislation defining how a building’s energy consumption is calculated, what minimum performance it must achieve, and how that is documented. Recent amendments have extended its reach: the regulation no longer concerns only new building permits — it now directly governs the operating life of existing buildings.
This guide turns the obligations in force as of 2026 into a practical checklist for building owners, facility managers, site management companies and hotel operators.
What Is the BEP Regulation Based On?
The regulation derives from Energy Efficiency Law No. 5627 and aims to ensure efficient use of energy in buildings, prevent energy waste and protect the environment. Its scope covers not only the design of new buildings but also the operation, maintenance and performance certification of existing ones.
In practice the regulation has three pillars:
- Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) — classification of a building’s energy performance
- Nearly Zero-Energy Building (nZEB) — minimum performance and renewable energy requirements for new buildings
- Operational obligations — energy manager, periodic energy audit, measurement-based cost allocation in central systems
Energy Performance Certificate: Who, When, Which Class?
The EPC shows a building’s energy demand, insulation characteristics, heating and cooling system efficiencies and greenhouse gas emissions, expressed as a class from A to G.
- New buildings: an EPC must be issued at the occupancy permit stage, and a minimum class of C is required. Buildings below class C are not granted an occupancy permit.
- Existing buildings: an EPC is mandatory for sale and rental transactions. Since 1 January 2020, buildings without an energy performance certificate cannot be sold or leased. There is no minimum class requirement for existing buildings — what matters is that the certificate exists.
- Validity: 10 years from the date of issue, after which it must be renewed.
- Exemptions: buildings used for production activities in industrial zones, structures with a planned service life of under two years, buildings under 50 m² of total usable area, greenhouses, workshops and places of worship, among others.
A common misunderstanding: the EPC is a calculation document, not a measurement document. It is derived from the building’s design, insulation and equipment efficiencies. It does not show what the building actually consumes. That distinction explains why the operational obligations below matter separately.
Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings: The 2,000 m² Threshold
The most significant recent change is the nZEB obligation, phased in as follows:
| Period | Buildings covered | Minimum renewable share | Minimum EPC class |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January 2023 – 1 January 2025 | Total construction area of 5,000 m² and above | At least 5% of primary energy demand | B |
| From 1 January 2025 | Total construction area of 2,000 m² and above | At least 10% of primary energy demand | B |
So if you are constructing a new building over 2,000 m² in 2026, it must achieve class B or better and cover at least 10% of its primary energy demand from renewable sources. Compliance is checked through the EPC preliminary calculation result form prepared at the permit stage.
The practical consequence: nZEB is no longer a “green building” choice but a permit condition for new construction above 2,000 m². How the renewable share will be delivered — rooftop PV, heat pumps, solar thermal collectors — must be settled during design.
Operational Obligations: Energy Manager and Energy Audit
The accompanying Regulation on Increasing Efficiency in the Use of Energy Resources and Energy imposes separate duties for the operating phase. These are frequently overlooked and are a common source of administrative fines.
Appointing an energy manager
- Commercial and service buildings: required where total construction area is at least 20,000 m² or annual total energy consumption is 500 TOE or above.
- Public sector buildings: required where total construction area is at least 10,000 m² or annual total energy consumption is 250 TOE or above.
Note the wording: the condition is “or”, not “and”. Being under 20,000 m² does not by itself grant exemption — exceeding the consumption threshold triggers the obligation.
Energy audit frequency
Commercial, service and public buildings above those thresholds must commission an energy audit every seven years. For comparison, industrial facilities are on a four-year cycle. New buildings commission their first audit in the seventh year after obtaining the occupancy permit.
For what an audit covers and what it produces, see What Is an Energy Audit? The most common mistake after an audit is shelving the report; an audit is a starting point, and the follow-through is described in continuous monitoring after an energy audit.
Cost allocation in central systems
In buildings with central heating, heat and hot water consumption must be allocated to individual units on the basis of measurement. Allocation by floor area without heat cost allocators or heat meters is both non-compliant and removes any incentive to save: nobody reduces consumption they do not pay for.
Annual declaration
Buildings and enterprises above the thresholds must declare the previous year’s energy consumption data and energy management activities through the relevant Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources portal by the end of March each year. A late or missing declaration is itself grounds for an administrative sanction.
This creates a practical problem: the declaration requires monthly consumption data broken down by energy type. A building management team that only keeps invoice totals throughout the year struggles to reconstruct that table in March. Where a monitoring system is in place, the declaration becomes a few hours of reporting.
The Most Common Compliance Gaps in Hotels, Malls and Residential Complexes
Five gaps recur in almost every building project we work on:
- The EPC has expired unnoticed. Certificates are valid for 10 years, and most of those issued in the early 2010s are now void. The problem surfaces only when a sale or lease is on the table.
- The “or” in the threshold is missed. A hotel below 20,000 m² can easily exceed 500 TOE through high consumption, while management assumes exemption based on floor area alone.
- Common-area consumption is invisible. The total invoice is known, but the share taken by lifts, booster pumps, car park lighting and air handling units is not. Without that breakdown no savings project can be prioritised.
- Allocators are installed but never read. The hardware exists, the data is not collected, and allocation still happens by floor area in practice.
- An audit report exists, implementation does not. Because nobody measured which measures were implemented and what they delivered, the next audit repeats the same recommendations.
2026 Compliance Checklist
- Does the building hold a valid Energy Performance Certificate? Have 10 years passed since it was issued?
- For new construction: does total construction area exceed 2,000 m²? If so, are the class B and 10% renewable requirements met in the design?
- Is the 20,000 m² or 500 TOE threshold exceeded? If so, has a certified energy manager been appointed?
- Have seven years passed since the last energy audit?
- If there is central heating, is a measurement-based allocation system installed and actually read?
- Are electricity, natural gas and water consumption tracked monthly, or are only invoices seen?
- Are common areas — car park, lifts, lighting, booster pumps, ventilation — measured separately?
The last two items are not stated as documentation requirements in the regulation, but meeting the other five sustainably depends on them in practice.
From Certificate to Operation: Why Measurement Becomes Necessary
The logic of the BEP regulation is to guarantee a building’s design performance. But actual consumption depends far more on how a building is operated: setpoints, operating hours, maintenance quality, equipment left running.
What we see repeatedly on site: a well-operated class C building consumes less than a poorly operated class B building. Seeing that difference requires not a certificate but continuous measurement.
A meaningful monitoring architecture in a building typically covers:
- Main incoming electricity measurement plus sub-metering per unit or tenant
- Separate measurement of common-area loads: lifts, booster pumps, car park lighting, air handling units
- Heat meters and gas meters on the heating and cooling side
- Water measurement with flow meters on the main line and critical branches
- All of this collected on a single time axis
We covered how this architecture is applied specifically to buildings, residential complexes and hotels in Energy Monitoring in Buildings, Residential Complexes and Hotels. For the underlying principles, see What Is Energy Monitoring?
Consequences of Non-Compliance
Failure to meet these obligations triggers administrative fines under Law No. 5627. Amounts are revalued annually, so the current figure should be verified against Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources sources. Two consequences are often heavier than the fine itself:
- Transaction block: a unit without an EPC cannot be sold or leased.
- Permit block: a new building failing the nZEB requirement is not granted an occupancy permit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is an Energy Performance Certificate valid?
10 years from the date of issue. It must be renewed when that period expires.
Will I be fined if my existing building has a low EPC class?
No. There is no minimum class requirement for existing buildings; having the certificate is sufficient. The minimum class C requirement applies to newly constructed buildings.
Which buildings does the nZEB requirement apply to?
From 1 January 2025, new buildings with a total construction area of 2,000 m² and above. They must achieve class B or better and cover at least 10% of primary energy demand from renewable sources.
Does our residential complex need an energy manager?
It is required if total construction area is at least 20,000 m² or annual total energy consumption is 500 TOE or above. Meeting either condition triggers the obligation.
How often are energy audits required in buildings?
Every seven years for commercial, service and public buildings above the thresholds. For industrial facilities the cycle is four years.
Is installing an energy monitoring system a legal requirement?
The regulation does not say “install a monitoring system” directly. It does require measurement-based allocation in central systems, an energy manager and periodic audits above the thresholds, plus an annual consumption declaration. Because all of those require measured data, a monitoring system becomes necessary in practice.
Conclusion
Compliance with the BEP regulation has two layers. The first is the documentation layer: the EPC, the nZEB requirement, the permit stage. The second is the operational layer: energy manager, periodic audit, measurement-based allocation, annual declaration. The first is completed once; the second must be demonstrated every year.
To assess whether your building, complex or hotel has the measurement infrastructure its regulatory obligations require, explore the ATS Energy Monitoring System or contact us for a needs assessment.