Shortage of electricty in Albania. 12/30/2015
Draught-hit Albania importing electricity to meet domestic demand
Dec 30, 2015 17:18 CET by Marina Mikhaylova
draught-hit-albania-importing-electricity-to-meet-domestic-demand Transmission lines. Author: Nayu Kim. License: Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic.
TIRANA (Albania), December 29 (SeeNews) - Albania, which relies solely on hydropower to meet domestic electricity demand, is forced to import electricity after a long spell of dry weather, data on the website of the country's power corporation KESH indicated.
KESH is seeking a supplier for 99.6 GWh of electricity in the January 2 - January 15 period, a tender notice published on the company's website indicated. Bids should be submitted by December 31.
According to another tender invitation on the company's website earlier this month Albania's power corporation bought 41.6 GWh worth 2.16 million euro from five energy suppliers: GEN-I Tirana, EFT, Axpo doo Beograd, Axpo Energy Romania and Energy Supply.
Albania has seen only three days with precipitation in the last six months, according to local media.
In these conditions KESH cannot meet the country's needs of 880 GWh energy for January and February and will seek to contract 300 GWh, local magazine Monitor reported on Tuesday.
The energy crisis has prompted the government to revise the 2015 state budget to include a further 1 billion leks ($7.96 million/7.29 million euro) in expenditures for the energy sector, Monitor added.
The energy situation in the country is expected to worsen further as no rainfall is forecast in the coming weeks.
According to data from the country's statistic office, domestic consumption in the first six months of the year rose by 3.5% to 2,476 GWh. Net domestic production of electricity power, all of it generated by hydro-power plants, in the first half of the year increased by 59.4% to 3,750 GWh from 2,353 GWh produced in 2014.
According to Monitor, in the January-November period KESH supplied 4,016 GWh to Albanian clients, as compared to 3,864 GWh in the like period a year earlier.
1 euro = 137,066 Albanian leks
