TIRANA, Aug. 15 – The Albanian government on Wednesday approved a licence for the construction of a $630 million (467.68 million Euros) 500kV interconnection line with Italy.
The line, which will be constructed by the Swiss-based international consortium ASG Power, is part of a bigger investment of ASG Power worth $2.3 billion.
“The line, that links the Albanian town of Elbasan with the Italian town of Foggia, will be constructed in 19 months. This will allow the two national grids to communicate. The interconnection line shall go from Foggia Italy, to Seman near Albania’s western town of Fier, where it shall be ending in an AC-DC converter station at each end. From there the line shall continue to Elbasan, in order to connect to the national grid of Albania,” said Alban Bala, a representative of the consortium’s local unit ASG Power Albania.
The line, with a total length of 340 kilometers, will be constructed under a 35-year concession deal signed by ASG Power and Albania next year.
“With the construction of this line, Albania becomes the first country out of the European Union, connected to the transmission system of Europe,” Bala said.
Under the ASG Power investment plan in Albania the company will also build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification plant, a 1,200 MW combined cycle power plant and the necessary land and maritime infrastructure. The regasification unit will process gas shipped from LNG export countries and the power plant will be connected with Italy by an underwater gas pipeline. The regasification plant will have an annual capacity of 10 billion cubic meters, of which two billion cubic meters will be used for domestic consumption and the rest can be shipped to Italy.
“This line provides us the opportunity to start immediate electricity imports, to help Albania meet the increasing energy demand, while we are constructing the regasification plant,” Bala said, adding that ASG targets the plant to be a transit point for international gas networks.
The whole project, expected to be completed in 2009, will help Albania overcome its constant energy crisis and reduce the expensive power imports. Albania relies mainly on its water resources to generate power. Only one oil-fired power plant is currently operating near the town of Fier. The regasification plant is expected to supply gas to the planned second would-be thermal power plant in Vlore, and the industrial plants in Fier and Elbasan, according to Albania’s energy ministry.
