TIRANA, Nov. 1 – The Albanian government has concluded contract negotiations with a Turkish consortium over a 35-year concession to build and operate a big hydropower plant, defying calls by environmentalists and civil society activists who staged protests earlier this year to protect what they called a unique ecosystem and the “Blue Heart of Europe.”
In an announcement published on this week’s bulletin of the Public Procurement Agency, the energy ministry said it has awarded a concession contract to Turkey’s Kovlu Energji, a joint venture between Turkey’s à‡inar-San Hafriyat and Ayen Enerji Anonim Sirketi to invest about 101 million euros in the next three years and produce an annual 305 million kWh.
The Albanian government will benefit a concession fee of 2.2 percent equal to 6 million kWh in annual electricity production during the plant’s 35 years of operation until it shifts under government ownership.
The Turkish consortium, which had been awarded a bonus for its unsolicited bid in mid-2015, was the sole bidder in the tender on the Poà§em HPP held last March.
Concession contracts to build hydropower plants in the Vjosa and Valbona rivers have sparked protests among local residents and environmentalists who fear the emerging tourism industry and the unique ecosystems will suffer a severe setback.
Last February, activists demanded the annulment of all concessionary agreements regarding the construction of hydropower plants on the Vjosa River and its tributaries, urging the government to declare the area a national park.
Private and concession hydropower plants contributed by 31.6 percent of domestically produced hydropower in the first half of this year, up from about a quarter during the same period last year. Albania’s domestic electricity generation, covering about 80 percent of the country’s needs, is wholly hydro dependent and suffers in times of prolonged droughts.
