Shala River Cascade, the ministry clarifies the concession procedure
In the framework of transparency for public opinion, the Ministry of Energy and Industry clarifies that in 2009, the Government had signed a contract for the construction of 6 hydropower plants in the Shala River. The total installed power for these HPPs was projected to reach 127,600 kW while the average power output would go up to 530,350,000 kWh.
During the audit that the Ministry of Energy and Industry made concession contracts in force, it resulted that some procedural aspects were violated in this case: the project was incomplete and in its contents a series of reports and documents were missing as the hydropower utilization scheme ; hydropower and hydrotechnical reports; environmental impact assessment reports and business plan reports. The concessionaire also did not fulfill the contract security obligation as stipulated by the legislation. For these reasons, the Ministry of Energy and Industry unilaterally decided to conclude the concession contract.
Given the hydropower potential of this catchment area, the Ministry of Energy and Industry, in the capacity of the Contracting Authority, decided to reopen the procedure for its use, already with the requested proposal. The announcement of the announcement of the procedure was made public in accordance with the requirements of the legislation and at the conclusion resulted in the participation in the contest of the temporary merger of the companies "Çinar-San Hafriyat Nakliyat Insaat Turizm Sanayi Ve Ticaret LTD.STI", "Shala Energy PLC" "Wall Properties LLC". After reviewing the documentation, the company was declared the winner of this competition.
In the Terms of Reference, the Contracting Authority has taken into consideration that in addition to the optimum utilization of the hydropower potential of this basin, it should also consider its minimal impact on the environment. In this context, the presence of protected areas in the North Alps and their avoidance of the project has been considered with great attention.
The new project foresees the reduction of the number of hydropower plants and the installed power compared to that of the previous project. Of the 6 projects envisaged in the initial revoked project, the project already has 3 hydro power plants, of which 2 with the derivate and 1 with the non-combustion dam. According to the new winning project, the total investment for the construction of hydropower plants on the Shala River is around 84.5m euros for installed power of 83.45 MW and average electricity output of 321.5 MWh / year. The projected deadline for construction of this project is 36 months.
The new project submitted by the winning bidder, according to the EIA presented, does not have any impact on the protected areas because it is in considerable discipline from them. Notwithstanding this, the Contracting Authority will be careful that during the negotiation of the concession contract with the winning bidder condition until its revocation, elimination or minimization within the environmental technical conditions of the concessionaire's interventions.
The social impact of the project is limited as there is no population displacement and is affected by a very small amount of agricultural land. This impact is expected to be positive in terms of employment, improvement of road infrastructure, transport, possibility of raising fish farms, ensuring sustainability of electricity supply.
In the project it is planned that with the implementation of rehabilitation plans and planning of rehabilitation, settling and afforestation works, the organization of construction work and techniques to be used for construction of pipeline works, pipeline tunnels and pipelines, roads passing fish and plant buildings will minimize negative impacts.
Rehabilitation works will affect the improvement of the environment as the degraded surfaces will be rehabilitated. The handling of solid materials arising from excavations during the construction phase of the works, construction of the offshore works and the derating channel is planned to be done in accordance with the technical rules and respecting the requirements for integrated waste management and Environmental Protection.
By signing the concession contract, the builder has the obligation to be provided with environmental permits according to the legislation in force provided by the relevant authorities, in which concrete obligations and penalties in the environmental aspect of the project will be determined.
