By Gajtis Bejleri
TIRANA, July 8 – METE and the Energy Regulating Entity (ERE) said experts from the two institutions are compiling the evaluation criteria of the bid that will sell the Power Distribution Operator (OSSH).
The bid is set to take place in September, with four companies running for the agency. EVN AG, Energie Steiermark AG, CEZ a.s., and ENEL S.p.A have already expressed their interest in buying OSSH.On June 9, the companies were declared as qualified bidders by the Offer Evaluation Committee.
So far, the bidding companies have entered the application phase, and later will inspect OSSH, in order to evaluate the company and present their bids accordingly.The winning company will have to buy between 51 and 76 percent of the agency’s shares.
The privatization of OSSH aims at the liberalization of the energy market in Albania. The process started with the agency’s split from KESH, where OSSH used to serve as the distribution branch of the corporation. After taking the decision of selling OSSH, METE took control over it.
OSSH has about 1 million customers in the country. Most of those, counting 878,000 customers, are households. The remaining112,000 are businesses. 55 percent of its customers are located in urban areas, while the rest live in the rest in rural areas.
OSSH distributes 2.078 GW/h to its household customers, and another 1.135 GW/h to the private businesses. Although the difference in number of customers between urban and rural areas is only 10 percent, OSSH distributes 2.577 GW/h to its urban customers, one and a half times more than to the rural areas.
