Authorities continue to target electricity theft

Government officials vow sustained campaign to cut off illegal power connections and increase collection of bills.
TIRANA, Nov. 25 – State authorities are continuing their operation to cut illegal power supply connections to individuals and businesses in a bid to lower electricity theft.
Tens such operations have taken place countrywide, including arrests of business owners caught stealing electricity.
Prime Minister Edi Rama and several cabinet ministers have joined the head of state-owned power company OSHEE and other corporation authorities on the ground to see how the corporation and police are working to curb power theft.
They said they have been mentioning the operation daily and added it is not just a temporary campaign.
“If we would want to have sustainable energy prices in the future, the key to that success is the financial stability of the sector,” said Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri on Tuesday.
The minister added that the money collections had increased by 50 percent and the power corporation had also bought the power meters to be installed where they are lacking.
“We are not going to withdraw [from such an operation] as it is for the good of the Albanian economy, for the health of the energy sector, but above all for the price stability for the people,” he said.
The minister also said that the people have started to conserve electricity.
Albania’s power network has long suffered from the non-payment from consumers that had gone to 64 percent in 2012 during the previous government and the network losses that also reached half of the production. Now the latter has reached to 34 percent, according to the minister. They have collected $70 million more than last year from the consumers already, they said.
But the fight against power theft has also sparked again the political fight.
The opposition Democratic Party first said that the government was selective in its action. It has asked the government to offer amnesty for the poorest people who can’t pay for accumulated bills.
The government, on its side, says that such families should make the payment in installments as the law does not foresee that such groups won’t have to pay.
The governing Socialist Party came out to oppose what the Democrats are asking the government to arrange everything in just one year of governing for what was destroyed in eight years that the previous government failed to do.
“This is a battle between new Albania reborn through reforms and old informal Albania that is trying not to distract itself from the road of ruin,” said Socialist lawmaker Blendi Klosi Tuesday.
Albania aims to have full connection with regional power networks within four years. It also aims to liberalize 40 percent of the country’s power market until 2018. Albania has the interconnection lines with Montenegro and Greece. The interconnection line with Macedonia is expected to be completed by 2018.