Konfindustria: CEZ not fulfilling its end of bargain

TIRANA, Oct 18 – Konfindustria, a large Albanian business organization, has expressed concerns about the losses the country’s important industries are suffering due to the bad quality of the power supply. It wants to change and improve the legal terms of contracts between businesses and CEZ Distribution, based on EU standards.
The organization also said in a statement that individual contracts could also follow suit.
Konfindustria sent a few days ago an official request letter to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy and the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERE), the two bodies in charge of the matter.
Konfindustria says that despite significant improvements in the past three years in the amount of electricity supplied the following problems continue: the quality of provision of supply, the level and volatility of voltage, frequent and unexpected cuts, etc. All the above affect businesses directly with additional financial cost of tens of million euros annually for local industries with serious consequences for the activity. The situation is even more significant if the value that above everything going on in terms of the consequences of global economic and financial crisis.
Konfindustria says the state authorities need to intervene in the Albanian power system where after the OSSH privatization, Albania went from public monopoly to private monopoly. So it is now appropriate to review the necessary legal mutual relations.
“Improvement of the contract must necessarily move to mandatory carriage of additional financial costs incurred for the industries / businesses from damage due to the quality of power supply,” the Konfindustria statement says.