Italian Maire Engineering to negotiate the future thermal plant

TIRANA, Nov.7 – KESH investments and foreign projects director Fatmir Hoxha announced on Tuesday that the Italian company Maire Engineering has been picked for talks on building a thermal power plant. The Albanian power supply company estimated the cost of the investment up to 115 million euro ($147.3 million). Hoxha confirmed that out of all the competing firms, “Maire is the only company invited to the negotiations table.” German Siemens, Spanish Iberdrola in consortium with General Electric and Indian BHEL were the other candidates in an open international tender for the project called in 2004.The official form KESH said that the talks would start as soon as possible, within this month. The contract is expected to be signed by the end of the year. If all the negotiations are successfully concluded, Maire Engineering will have to build a power plant with a capacity of 85-to-135 megawatt and a combined cycle. The necessary fuel will be provided by distillate oil in Vlore, Albania’s most popular tourist city in the south. The region will benefit form the stable energy supply, supporting the increased demand for tourism needs. In a more general level it is planned to reduce reliance on hydropower in Albania. The financing parties of the project are: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the World Bank and KESH. Construction is expected to last no longer than two years. The type of contract will be a single Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract (EPC contract).