Devoll HPP on track to increase electricity generation by 20%

Christian Rynning-Tonnesen, the President and CEO of Statkraft told Albanian Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri during a visit he paid in Norway that construction works for the completion of the Banja HPP by 2016 and that of Moglice by 2018 are on track
TIRANA, Oct. 24 – Albania’s fragile electricity sector is projected to get a boost by 2018 when two new hydropower plants by Norway’s Statkraft are expected to increase the country’s wholly dependent electricity generation by around 20 percent. The Banja and Moglice HPPs, part of the Euro 535 million Devoll Hydropower project, are being built on the Devoll Rover, about 70 km southeast of Tirana. The power plants will produce 729 GWh annually, increasing the Albanian electricity production by almost 17 per cent.
Christian Rynning-Tonnesen, the President and CEO of Statkraft told Albanian Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri during a visit he paid in Norway that construction works for the completion of the Banja HPP by 2016 and that of Moglice by 2018 are on track.
He suggests Albania can turn the electricity sector into a key driver of growth by opening up the electricity market, integrating it into the regional Balkan market and disciplining the distribution market which suffers huge losses and a poor collection rate.
“The two hydropower plants to be constructed in the Devoll Cascade will cost a total of 535 million Euros, with only 100 million to be spent within 2014. Part of the construction shall be two new transmission lines 220 and 110 kilovolt, and many new access roads. There are over 575 Albanian employees currently working for Devoll Hydropower project,” said Devoll Hydropower officials have earlier said.
Statkraft says it has decided to build the two hydropower plants Banj롡nd Moglic롷ith a combined capacity of 243 MW and an annual production of about 700 GWh. “The investment frame for the two first plants is estimated to EUR 535 million. The plants are expected to be completed in 2016 and 2018, respectively,” the company says in a statement.
The power plants are located on the Devoll river, about 70 km southeast of the capital Tirana.
The existing Banj롄am was initiated in the mid 1980s during the communist regime as part of the former Banj롨ydropower project. In the early 1990s the project was stopped and the project’s structures (cofferdam, headrace tunnel, inspection gallery, bottom outlet tower and tunnel) were left uncompleted.
Devoll Hydropower, a Euro 950 million project, was set up as a 50/50 joint venture between EVN and Statkraft after the two companies won in 2009 a concession to build three hydropower plants on the Devoll River. In 2013, Statkraft acquired EVN’s 50 per cent share and is now 100 per cent owner of the company and the construction project.
The Devoll hydropower project is currently the first large scale public-private-partnership investment in the country and one of the largest hydropower investments in the Balkans. With a total capacity of 243 MW, the Devoll river project will generate approximately 700 GWh of renewable, environmentally-friendly energy each year and increase the current electricity production in Albania by approximately 17 percent. It will supply more than 300,000 Albanian households.
Statkraft is Norway’s largest and the Nordic region’s third largest power producer. The company which is wholly owned by the Norwegian state has 3, 600 employees and is active in more than 20 countries.