New tender announced on four HPPs

TIRANA, Nov. 13 – The Albanian government has announced a new tender on the sale of four small and medium-sized hydropower plants whose privatization has failed for several consecutive times. In an announcement, the Economy and Energy Ministry invites companies to submit bid on the purchase of the four HPPs until December 10, when bids will open. Under the changes to the new tender, the pre-qualification stage has been removed and the guarantee bidders have to deposit reduced from Euro 10 million to 10 percent of the bid in an effort to finalize the process.
A tender held last September failed to attract interest from potential bidders. Speaking after the tender, deputy Energy Minister Sokol Dervishaj, also the head of the bids evaluation committee, said the companies had demanded more time, concerned over how they will transmit and sell power produced from the four hydropower plants.
Opposition Socialist Party MPs present in the bid opening called on government to withdraw from the sale of the four HPPs which account for around 6 percent of the annual power generation and prove profitable. Opposition leader Edi Rama said government was losing USD 20 million annually from the privatization of the four hydropower plants.
Government has postponed the tender on the HPPs sale for several times after the company’s refusal to submit bids or their low intended bids. Austria’s Verbund had previously evaluated the four hydropower plants at Euro 80 million, almost half the amount the Albanian government intends to collect.
The Energy Ministry decided to open bids on Bistrica HPPs, southern Albania and the Ulez and Shkopet HPPs, northern Albania, on Sept. 14 because of the complexity of this process and so that the procedures do not affect each other.
Two Austrian companies and a French one have been qualified to submit bids on the privatization of four small and medium sized hydropower plants. Austria’s EVN and Verbund which have formed a joint venture to build a giant HPP in northern Albania are competing separately in this tender along with France’s CNR & CN’AIR. Turkey’s Calik and Limak Energy, Italy’s Tozi Spa and an Austrian-Israeli consortium have also recently entered the race for the purchase of the four HPPs. The four HPPs are reported to have an installed power of 77 Megawatts, accounting for 5.3 percent of hydro electricity produced by state run Power Corporation KESH.
Government hopes to collect around Euro 150 million from the sale of the four HPPs. All four HPPs are in good condition especially the southern Bistrica HPPs which have been upgraded under a Euro 30 million investment.