TIRANA, May 30 – Albania’s household electricity prices have become among Europe’s lowest following their unification in 2015, but when adjusted for purchasing power they remain among the region’s highest and are higher even compared to France, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
When measured in purchasing power standards (PPS), an artificial common reference currency that eliminates general price level differences between countries, Albania’s average household electricity prices per 100 kWh at the end of 2015 were at 19.6, slightly below the EU 28 average of 21.1 in PPS but higher compared to several regional competitors and EU members including France’s 15.2 in PPS.
Albania’s average household electricity prices dropped by about 30 percent to €8.2 per 100 kWh in 2015 when the 300 kWh threshold charging lower prices was lifted and prices unified at a higher rate, says Eurostat.
At €8.2/100 kWh Albania had the third lowest household power prices among 39 European countries after Kosovo and Serbia.
However, the country’s energy regulator, ERE, says in its annual report average household electricity prices rose to 9.52 lek (€0.07) in 2015, up from 8.89 lek (€0.064) in 2014.
Business electricity prices also rose by about 19 percent to 13.6 lek(€0.1)/kWh (VAT excluded) in 2015, higher than in Lithuania, Serbia, Hungary and Moldova, ERE says referring to data by the Budapest-based Energy Regulators Regional Association.
Albania’s GDP per capita, a measure of economic activity, and the actual individual consumption, an indicator of the material welfare of households, ranks among the poorest in Europe, at almost a third of the EU 28, according to the latest Eurostat data.
In 2015, energy regulator ERE ruled the unified electricity price will be at 9.5 lek (11.4 lek VAT included)/kWh (Euro 0.08) which affected all consumers with a monthly consumption of up to 450 kWh and charged lower bills to those with a bigger consumption due to the lift of the previous 13.5 lek/kWh tariff for every kWh above the 300 kWh threshold, previously charged at 7.7 lek/kWh.
Thousands of families in need with a monthly consumption of 300 kWh were promised compensation of 650 lek (€4.65)/month due to higher bills.
Business consumers also faced power price hikes of up to 20 percent in 2015, sharply increasing their costs after the corporate income tax and the dividend tax were raised by 5 percent to 15 percent, increasing their operating costs.
Almost a year after a nationwide campaign to reform the electricity sector and a year ahead of the new general elections, Prime Minister Edi Rama has announced a cut to household power prices by lifting the 20 percent value added tax. The nationwide campaign against massive electricity thefts and accumulated unpaid bills turned the nearly bankrupt state-run power distribution operator to profitable although and sharply cut grid losses which still remain high at 30 percent.
About 60 percent of Albanian households consume up to 400 kWh a month, says ERE in its latest 2015 report.
The Albanian hydro-dependent electricity system is now wholly state run after a 2014 deal settling the dispute with Czech giant CEZ group which will be paid back Euro 95 million for 76 percent of the shares it bought in the Albanian electricity distribution operator in 2009 for Euro 102 million.
