“Water flows in Drin river remain very low at 50 m3/s due to ice and snow. We are negotiating on increasing imports which will continue even next March because of low water reserves” says KESH director
TIRANA, Feb. 15 – Heavy snowfall in northeastern Albania has sharply cut water flows in the Drin cascade where the country major three hydropower plants accounting for the majority of domestically produced electricity are situated. The situation has put state-owned power corporation KESH in severe financial straits as power prices in the region stand at a record high and the key producers have stopped exports. KESH has been able to secure imports only thanks to continuous government funding.
KESH officials told reporters this week they have obtained a 2 billion lek from government’s contingency funds to handle the expensive energy imports. Engjell Zeqo, KESH’s directors, said on Wednesday, the power utility will continue importing more in order to preserve water levels in the Drin cascade.
“Water flows in Drin river remain very low at 50 m3/s due to ice and snow. We are negotiating on increasing imports which will continue even next March because of low water reserves” said Zeqo.
Energy consumption currently stands at 26 mln kWh, of which 11 million kWh is imported.
Apart from overoptimistic GDP growth and revenues targets, the energy crisis will most likely put the Albanian government in severe financial difficulty risking scheduled investments and pension and wage increases.
Hoping for extreme weather conditions to improve, the quick melting of snow whose thickness has reached up to 3 metres, and the resumption of rains in northeastern Albania would be the only things saving Albania from an energy crisis already at the gates.
Last week, Finance Minister Ridvan Bode warned the 2 billion lek contingency fund was enough for only one to two months of electricity supply, under current conditions.
In December 2011, government authorized KESH to borrow 4.5 billion lek (around Euro 32 mln) for electricity imports, but the corporation now says it needs another 11 billion lek ( Euro 77.3 million) to handle the crisis, and these funds can only come from the state budget.
“The [loan] guarantee was used for the bills we had to pay in November and December and now in January and February we are using bank overdrafts amounting to Euro150 million,” a source in KESH told Balkan Insight.
