Transmitting System Operator, the state-owned company that runs the 400 kilovolt interconnection power lines between Albania and its neighbors, needs the loans to complete work on new lines.
TIRANA, March 2 – A 90 million euro soft loan from Germany’s development bank, KfW, to improve Albania’s electric network connections with Kosovo, Montenegro and Greece, is getting fast-track approval by the Albanian government and parliament. The agreement was approved by the parliament’s Economy Commission this week.
The approval comes to the delight of the Transmitting System Operator, the state-owned company that runs the 400 kilovolt interconnection power lines between Albania and its neighbors. It needs the funds to complete work on new lines by 2013.
“We have completed the tendering and have signed contracts with the winners and will continue implementation of the project, which requires a period of three years to finish,” TSO’s Ylli Demiri told the members of the commission.
Members of Parliament said they want to speed up the deal because the interconnection lines the loan finances are vital to the country’s energy system.
Albania’s government had earlier approved the loans, serving as a guarantor for the state-owned company.
The loan stipulates that 49 million euros will go to improving the network in southern Albania and the rest, 42 million euros, will go towards financing the 400 kilovolt interconnection line between Albania and Kosovo.
Albania expects to complete the high power transmission lines with Montenegro in 2010, which will bring double the export capacities and within three years it wants to finish the line to Kosovo, which will triple the current export capacity, according to Energy Minister Dritan Prifti.
The German government has so far committed a total of 850 million euros for investment projects throughout Albania, of which more than half are implemented by the KfW.
