Albania and Verbund EVN sign agreement on hydroelectric power

TIRANA, Sep 30 – The Austrian Verbund and EVN signed a concession contract with the Albanian government for the construction and operation of a hydroelectric power for 30 years.
The group will invest 160 million Euros for the construction of a hydroelectric power plant to produce 48 megawatts at the northern Drini River, the fourth plant on the river.
The plant is expected to enter into business in 2012.
It is planned to be in operation in 40 months.
The Austrian company said it was important to be in Albania after a strong presence in Central Europe, Italy and Turkey, now expanding in the Balkans.
Verbund, Austria’s leading power producer plans to invest over billion of Euros in other projects in hydropower and gas-fired plants in Turkey.
To win the Albanian concession for the Ashta hydropower plant in July, Verbund beat a rival bid from a joint venture linking Compagnie Nationale du Rhone and Electrabel, both controlled by French utility company Suez.
Verbund said it will build the hydropower plant at Ashta, which would have a capacity of 48 MW and an annual production capacity of 230 GWH, in a joint venture with Austria’s EVN, which is also negotiating an approximately one billion euro project to build hydropower plants on the Devoll River in Albania’s east.
The initial plan was to build a hydropower plant at Bushat in northern Shkodra district, but it was moved to Ashta for environmental reasons.
Albanians have been plagued for years by lengthy and frequent power cuts caused by drought, bad management, non-payment of electricity bills, the dilapidation of the communist-era grid and a failure to build new power plants.
Albania depends heavily on hydropower, with 90 percent of its electricity produced in the north from hydroelectric plants which have suffered from low rainfall and outdated technology in recent years.
The last plant built in Albania was some 30 years ago and there has been little investment in the grid since.