Energy pledges meet reality of power cuts

TIRANA, Oct. 31 – Albania Prime Minister says the country has the potential to build 443 hydroelectric power plants and more than 330 of them have signed concessionary contracts with companies. Berisha has also said that he intends to turn Albania into a small energy superpower in the Balkans, referring more to the potential to build such energy resources and the need for energy in the continent, especially in nearby Italy. But in the country we are listening to almost daily protests, or road blocking by people complaining about the power cut at their homes. Many homes do not pay for their electricity consumption, to add that there is also a lot of loss of energy along the distribution lines. But very often the CEZ, the Czech power distributor, punishes in bloc leaving without power many families that have regularly paid for their consume.That has occurred recently even in capital Tirana suburbs, Kombinat where thousands of inhabitants were let powerless for days first for some unknown reason and last weekend due to a power problem with the machinery covering the area.The opposition is accusing the government for not managing the concession properly and the Energy Regulatory Entity, the institution in charge of governing the energy in the country, of behaving very much in line with the government’s policy and damaging the population. The opposition Socialists claim that the power losses have risen significantly and the population is suffering as the authorities have increased the power price for the people paying for that and failing to get it from the non-paying consumers.To add to that there are increasing voices that theCEZ, the Czech Republic’s largest power producer, is saying it is considering leaving Albania as it hasn’t been able to resolve its dispute with the government regarding tariffs and extraordinary taxes. It says it lacks a clear negotiation partner in the country, according to its board member Tomas Pleskac.