EVN, Statkraft to launch Devoll cascade works in early 2013

TIRANA, Sept. 28 – Austria’s EVN and Norway’s Statkraft will launch the construction of a hydropower cascade on the Devoll River in Albania early next year, Prime Minister Sali Berisha has announced.
“Two giants of renewable energy in Europe and in the world, Norway’s Statkraft and Austria’s EVN, after several years of extraordinary work, after environmental and geological studies in all the trajectory of the Devoll River have decided to start construction works for the hydropower plants in the Devoll River. This will be the project of the centuries because it is build in around 50 kilometres of tunnels and what never dies is hydropower plants in tunnels. Work on this ambitious project will intensively start in 2013 and these two European giants are committed to finish the project in a short deadline of 5 to 6 years,” said Berisha.
The project will be implemented by the Devoll Hydropower (DHP) company – a 50/50 joint venture set up by the foreign investors. The project envisages building three hydropower plants and reservoirs – Banje, Kokel and Moglice with total installed capacity of 280MW. The new facilities will generate up to 800GWh of electricity per year and will boost Albania’s power output by some 20%. The DHP has already completed the first phase of the project, which included geological surveys, hydrological, topographical and seismic studies as well as an environmental and social impact assessment. The national committee for large dams approved last June the technical plan of the construction, which is a necessary step towards awarding the final construction permit. The Devoll cascade is the largest ever project carried out in Albania. According to earlier estimates, it will cost some EUR 950mn. The Albanian government has recently approved that ALL 278bn (EUR 2mn) will be paid to property owners affected by the construction. The funds will be provided by project company DHP. The process of expropriation will be launched on October 1.
Last month, the Ashta hydropower plant, a Euro 200 million investment by Austria’s Verbund and EVN was made fully operational. The 48-MW run-of-river project, the fourth largest hydropower plant on the northern River Drin cascade and the biggest HPP project during the past 20 years, provides electricity for 100,000 Albanian households.