TIRANA, Dec. 7 – The improving hydro situation in the country’s northern Drin Cascade following heavy rainfall causing massive floods in some parts of the country has had an immediate positive impact on the country’s state-run power utility, KESH, which has resumed electricity exports following a six-month period of compulsory costly imports triggered by one of the worst droughts in decades.
In three emergency tenders as water flows in the Drin cascade registered a sharp increase, KESH exported electricity worth about €2.2 million and stored part of it in Kosovo under an exchange deal it has with KEK, Kosovo’s power utility relying on coal-fired production.
KESH, which produces about three-quarters of domestic hydro-dependent electricity is also planning to sell electricity in several other tenders as water levels in the three hydropower plants have significantly improved and at a time when the country has already secured the overwhelming majority of electricity needs for December through costly imports of about €33 million, taking the total bill Albania has footed on electricity imports to about €200 million in the past six months.
Water levels at the Fierza HPP, the country’s largest, increased by about 6 meters to 276 meters following heavy rains, but yet remain significantly below optimal levels that can secure electricity generation for the country’s domestic needs and conduct export operations.
Albania’s domestic electricity generation is currently wholly hydro-dependent triggering the government to offer incentives for liquid gas-fired thermal power plants as the major Trans Adriatic Pipeline bringing Caspian gas nears completion.
The government has also urged investors to consider untapped potentials in solar and wind energy following a boom in the construction of small and medium-sized hydropower plants built under concession contracts in the past decade, currently producing about a quarter of domestic electricity, but being at risk of adverse weather conditions such as this year’s prolonged drought.
Meanwhile, a dispute between Serbia and its former breakaway province Kosovo over a long-standing electricity transmission issue continues to hold back a newly built German-funded Albania-Kosovo interconnection line.
The deadlock, which Germany is trying to mediate, has also halted Albania-Kosovo plans to set up a joint energy market and a power exchange helping Kosovo’s lignite-fired power plants and Albania’s hydro-dependent electricity system exchange electricity during their peak production levels, reducing dependency on costly imports.
