EBRD funds Albania’s dam safety improvement

TIRANA, Jan. 15 – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has given 12.7 million euros to upgrade the safety of the Komani hydropower plant dam.
The EBRD has invested over 180 million euros in improving Albania’s power sector operation to date. The last investment will upgrade Komani hydropower plant dam in the north of the country and is part of the dam safety programme, worth about 70 million euro, implemented by the Albanian government together with other international financial institutions.
Over 95 percent of Albania’s electricity is produced by five hydropower plants on the rivers Drin and Mat. These plants were built over 25 years ago and concerns over dam safety and their ability to withstand extreme weather conditions were heightened after floods in 2009 and 2010 in north-western Albania when tens of thousands of people were evacuated and areas of farmland were inundated in the floods, which saw the river Drin rise to its highest level in over a century.
First the authorities held a feasibility study to identify safety hazards and deficiencies at dams and to prepare urgent investments with a grant of 1.6 million francs from Switzerland. The last EBRD financing will support investments such as rockfall protection measures that will improve the safety of the Komani hydropower dam. The project will also support the establishment of a modern water alarm system both at the main alarm center in the capital city, Tirana, and at the hydropower plant.
The EBRD has invested about 710 million euro in the past 20 years in Albania in various sectors of the country’s economy, mobilizing additional investments of over 1.6 billion euro from other sources of financing.