Albanian KESH, expensive import
02/12/2011

The General Director of the Electric Power Corporation (KESH), Engjell Zeqo, says that the energy crisis that has affected the region is increasing the prices in the market.

“The entire region is facing a deep production crisis due to the drought. The situation is difficult throughout Europe, and being as such, the offer-demand ratio changes the price. The bigger demand has increased the price, because all countries of the region are importing”, Zeqo declared.

The head of KESH says that this doesn’t endanger the country’s energy supply, but it increases Albania’s energy import bill/

“This has been guaranteed with the agreement that we have, and has no danger for the part of electrical power. The agreements are credible, guaranteed and the power production part is guaranteed by other alternative productions”, Zeqo declared.

The government was obliged to give the first financial support for the corporation, which is enough only for covering the bills of this last month of the year.

“We have government support for the import bills for November and December. The bill goes to 5.6 billion ALL”, Zeqo explained.

But the crisis will end with the end of this year. There are big insecurities for the other year too, where if the drought will continue, KESH will also need bigger funds.

“With this price level, if we import the maximum allowed amount of energy, the bill would be greater than 100.000 EUR. There are two ways for securing it. Through the payments of CEZ and the government’s support for paying these bills”, the KESH director declared.

Albania is importing a record amount of energy, to 17 million KW hours per day, in order to fulfill the needs of the domestic market. The water the reserves are in their lowest points, around 259 meters in Fierze, near the level when the hydropower plant doesn’t produce anymore.