ERE postpones increasing electricity price

TIRANA, Dec. 8 – The Energy Regulatory Entity, the country’s top energy institution, said it had postponed increasing the country’s electricity prices until March of next year, and did not decide whether to pass along the increase that the Albanian Electro-Energy Corporation, or KESH, had requested.
The ERE said KESH would get an answer about a price increase most likely in March. The decision will be based upon new data as the rain situation has changed since KESH made their latest proposal while the country was suffering from a long drought, according to ERE head Bujar Nepravishta.
Another factor to postpone a price hike now was most likely that higher energy prices would increase inflation which has already reached 3.5 percent in November, the highest in recent years.
The pending privatization of the distribution network may also have affected the decision.
But the decision was not welcomed by the IMF, saying it would also affect the already approved government budget.
It is very likely that the government and Prime Minister Sali Berisha have been a decisive factor to urge ERE not to support a price hike. Berisha would not like to spread discontent among the population that is suffering up to 18 hours power cut a day.