Albania offers concessions for two hydro plants

* Minister says energy sector promising in Albania
* New plants capacity seen at 450 MW

TIRANA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Albania's energy minister on Wednesday invited foreign investors to compete in tenders in the coming months to build two hydropower stations with a combined 450 megawatt installed capacity, adding nearly a third to the country's hydro total.
Energy Minister Nasip Naco told a British-Albania business forum that energy was one of the most promising sectors for foreign firms, a number of whom have already targeted the country's large hydro reserves.
"In a few months, the ministry will start international tenders to award concessions for the building of two hydropower stations on two rivers," Naco said.
The concessions will be on the Vjosa and Osum Rivers in southern Albania.
Power-hungry Albania has already awarded 110 concessions to build 310 hydropower plants on its rivers with a potential combined installed capacity totaling 1,450 MW, Naco said.
When built, those projects alone would roughly double its existing capacity in three communist-era plants on the Drin River, before the addition of the two new projects.
Licences for 15 wind farms with an installed capacity of 1,550 MW at a cost of 2 billion euros ($2.6 bln dollars) have also been granted.
Despite the push to develop the country's renewable resources, some of the projects have not yet started while others have failed to obtain financing.
While Albania seeks to build more generation capacity, the state-owned KESH monopoly power producer has been forced to import electricity because of low water levels at its power plants - a problem that has hit the wider Balkan region.
Foreign firms including Austria's Verbund and EVN and Norway's Statkraft have signed deals in recent years to build hydro plants.
Verbund's Ashta plant, where construction began two years ago, is the first significant plant in 30 years to be built on the Drin river, where almost 95 percent of Albania's power is produced by the three existing plants. (Reporting By Benet Koleka, Editing by Michael Kahn and Jane Baird)