TIRANA, Aug. 10 – As the country faces one of its worst droughts in decades, paralyzing hydro-dependent domestic electricity generation, the Albanian authorities were forced to make new emergency purchases this week due to increased demand from the peak tourist season.
State-run OSHEE electricity operator managed to secure with difficulty an amount of 24,000 MWh for August 12 to 31 out of an initially planned 35,200 MWh due to low supply and unfavorable prices.
The electricity purchases cost the Albanian government about €1.68 million, at an average price of €70/MWh, about €1 higher compared to the late July auction, registering one of the highest prices in the past decade.
In late July, OSHEE distribution operator purchased 434,000 MWh of electricity for the whole of August 2017 for a total amount of €29.9 million at an average price of €69/MWh.
The OSHEE will secure its electricity from Slovenian, Serbian and Albanian operators through the Serbia-Montenegro, Greece-Albania interconnection line. Part of the electricity was also secured by Devoll Hydropower, the Albanian subsidiary of Norway’s Statkraft which has already made operational its first Albanian hydropower plant and is working to build a second bigger HPP by 2018.
Costly electricity imports have cost the Albanian government about €53 million for the past 2 months, affecting planned investment in the poor condition distribution grid.
Electricity imports are expected to cost the state budget some other dozens of millions of Euros in the next few months unless heavy rainfall fill up the empty reservoirs of the big hydropower plants.
Currently, about 80 percent of the country’s electricity needs are being met through costly imports, unveiling the need for the diversification of electricity resources to avoid adverse weather situations like this year.
