Large quantities of rain and snow in the past few months have meant the hydro-electric power plants have been working overtime.
Still benefiting from record rainfall in recent months, the state-owned electricity production company, KESH, said this week that it expects to continue to export electricity during the month of April.
KESH published this week the official list of companies that won an auction to buy 273 million kilowatt hours of energy, worth about 11 million euros. The sale of the Albanian electricity will be done through regional companies like EFT, EGL and Rudnap .
This will be the fourth month in a row for KESH as an exporter. Estimates indicate the company has made about 10 million euros per month exporting through the transfer lines with Greece and Kosovo.
In addition, KESH has said they made collected more 50 million euros in total for sales in both the domestic and international markets combined.
Large quantities of rain and snow in the past few month have meant the hydro-electric power plants have been working overtime. Unfortunately, many parts of Albania also suffered from floods.
This year alone, the average daily production was about 24 million kWh, a record figure in Albania.
Albania’s electricity production is a boom or bust cycle. Just a few years ago the country went for hours at a time without electricity due to lack of water in the rivers.
Albania ranks high for its considerable water resources and although about 98 percent of electricity comes from hydro-electric power plants, experts say that only 35 percent of the hydro production potential has been used so far.
However, as things stand, the country is too dependent on weather and the cycles of drought and rainfall.
Because of this situation, Albania has decided to diversify its sources of electricity by building power plants will help in the sustainable supply of electricity that would boost growth in demand for electricity in Albania.
Electricity production up 8.9% in 2009
Albania’s National Institute of Statistics has revealed that Albania’s electrical power increased by 8.9% in 2009 year-on-year, with the total energy produced and imported reaching 7,194 GWh.
According to the statistical office’s figures, domestic production of electrical energy reached 5,230 GWh in 2009, marking a huge increase of 35.8% year-on-year, representing 72.7% of total sources for electrical power.
The production of energy from hydro plants raised by35.7% year-on-year, representing 99.3% of total domestic production.
The import (including exchanges) of electrical power decreased to 1,974GWh in 2009, down by 97.9%, from 2,759 GWh in 2008.
