Prime minister says around 91 percent of household consumers and 88 percent of business consumers owe money to the state-owned power company.
TIRANA, Jan. 13 – The Albanian government has created a task force to improve electricity bill collection rates, reduce system losses in the distribution network and stop theft in the system, authorities have announce. Deputy Prime Minister Niko Peleshi is to lead the task force.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said the government will charge and punish all the institutions, businesses and individuals who have stolen electricity, the main product of value produced in Albania.
At the same time the task force will also speed up efforts to immediately make the delayed payments of the public institutions to the power corporations. Part of its work will also be the relationship between business and the distribution system company.
Peleshi and Prosecutor General Adriatik Llalla signed three memoranda of understanding together with the ministries of energy and justice.
“This challenge we have the will to win in a strong alliance with all interested citizens to have tomorrow a cheaper power, with all the interested entrepreneurs to have tomorrow a cheaper energy; and energy can be cheaper, only if all pay for what they use,” Rama said.
The new taskforce is mandated “to cut losses in the power grid and raise collection rates. … It will organize state institutions under one mission: to reverse the curve of energy losses,” said Rama.
State institutions currently owe 13.1 billion lek (94 million euro) to the electricity distributor, CEZ Shperndarje. The government also owes 3 billion lek (21 million euro) in unpaid power subsidies to people with disabilities.
Rama said the government would make it a priority for state institutions to pay their electricity bills on time, in order to set an example. He also added: “Electricity thieves will get the punishment that they deserve.”
Albania loses more than Euro 100 million from power theft
Albania loses Euro 100 to 140 million each year from the massive electricity thefts and the dilapidated distribution system which since January 2012 has been back under state administration after it was managed for three and a half years by Czech Republic giant CEZ which had its Albania licence revoked over mismanagement.
The statement came by Energy and Industry Minister Damian Gjiknuri during the first meeting of a task force set up to increase the bill collection and reduce losses in the distribution system estimated at around half of electricity fed into the grid.
Several ministries, including police and the general Prosecutor’s office will cooperate in the nationwide campaign which government has set as a priority on what it describes as a critical situation.
Speaking at the task force meeting, Prime Minister Edi Rama said around 91 percent of household consumers and 88 percent of business consumers were electricity debtors.
Grid losses in December 2012, just before the former Albanian government revoked the licence of CEZ Shperndarje rose to a record 55 percent, and only dropped by 2.4 percent in December 2013, government says.
“The task force is a result of new determination to protect the rights of citizens who regularly pay and cannot be incessantly punished by mismanagement and irresponsibility” said Rama. The Prime Minister said government intended to stop what he described as collective robbery starting with state institutions which owe the distribution operator 7.6 billion lek (Euro 53 million), to continue with business and household consumers.
“We will continue where electricity is stolen for profit purposes” said Rama, asking the cooperation of prosecution and courts to punish abusers.
Reacting to government’s statements, Suzana Guxholli, an economy expert at the opposition Democratic Party said grid losses had increased and the bill collection deteriorated in the past two months since a new CEZ administrator took over.
The opposition Democratic Party also denounced the return of fixed-rate bills for consumers without or damaged power meters.
Grid losses in Albania’s distribution system, which since January 2013 has been back under state administration after Prague-based CEZ Group had its Albania licence revoked, have registered a slight drop, but yet remain high at around 37 percent of electricity fed into the grid. The latest energy report published by the country’s state Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) shows grid losses in the first half of 2013 dropped by 4.6 percent to 37.2 percent compared to the same period in 2012 when CEZ Shperndarje distribution operator was under the Czechs’ administration.
Last October, Albania’s energy regulator selected Arben Seferi as the new administrator of the CEZ Shperndarje distribution operator, who replaced Sahit Dollapi.
Czech Republic-based CEZ Group, whose Albanian power supply subsidiary CEZ Shperndarje, was stripped of its licence last January, says it has officially initiated international arbitration procedures to claim compensation for the damage incurred in Albania. CEZ says it will claim Euro 200 million in international arbitration while the previous Albanian government claimed that CEZ’s failure to fulfill its contract obligations over imports, investments and reducing grid losses caused the state USD 1 billion in damage.
