Petrit Ahmeti, the head of the Energy Regulatory Entity (ERE), says the return of fixed-rate billing was a forced measure considering that 20 percent of electricity consumers remain unequipped with power meters or have damaged power meters
TIRANA, Jan. 21 – Albania’s energy regulator ERE has approved a decision which allows CEZ distribution operator to apply fixed-rate billing to household consumers without power meters or damaged ones. Petrit Ahmeti, the head of the Energy Regulatory Entity (ERE) says the return of fixed-rate billing was a forced measure considering that 20 percent of electricity consumers remain unequipped with power meters or have damaged power meters.
Fixed rate billing for consumers with damaged power meters will be applied for a period of up to two months, says the ERE decision made in late December 2013.
The Energy regulator has approved different fixed amounts of monthly kWh consumption for each region during winter and summer, for cities and villages.
ERE has ruled household consumers in urban Tirana will be charged for monthly consumption of 600 kWh, worth 7,632 lek (Euro 53) during winter and 400 kWh, worth 4,332 lek (Euro 31) during summer.
The fixed consumption for other regions from 400 to 500 kWh during winter and 300 to 400 kWh during summer.
Fixed rate billing was one of the reasons Czech Republic’s CEZ Group had its Albania licence revoked in January 2013.
The Albanian government has recently set up a task force to conduct a nationwide campaign in an effort to reduce grid losses and power thefts in the distribution system estimated at around half of electricity fed into the grid.
The Energy Ministry says 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.
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.
Albania’s energy regulator, ERE, has ruled power prices will remain unchanged even for 2014, but said it might review them for 2015 considering the huge losses in the distribution system where around half of the electricity fed into the grid goes unpaid because of thefts and the dilapidated network
ERE officials say they will continue applying the two-tier price level, under which Albanian households will pay 7.7 lek/kWh for a consumption of up to 300 kWh a month and 13.5 lek for each kWh they consume above the 300 kWh threshold (VAT excluded). Average tariffs for business consumers vary from 8.5 lek/ kWh to 10 lek kWh based on low or medium voltage power access. Meanwhile, state institutions pay 11.5 to 14 lek kWh.
Power prices during the past six years have increased by 63 percent climbing from an average of 5.71 kWh in 2005 to 9.53 lek kWh currently.
Czech Republic-based CEZ Group, whose Albanian power supply subsidiary CEZ Shperndarje, was stripped of its licence in January 2013, 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.
