New tender called on Albania-Kosovo interconnection line

TIRANA, March 20 – After cancelling the initial tender on the construction of the Albania-Kosovo interconnection line, the Albanian government has announced a new tender on the German-funded project which includes only the Albanian segment from Tirana to the border with Kosovo in Morina.
“The Albanian Transmission System Operator (OST) now invites sealed bids from eligible bidders for the execution on a turnkey basis of the engineering, procurement and construction works for the 400 KV Transmission Line project from Tirana to the border with Kosovo. The whole of contracted works will be awarded to a single bidder,” says OST in an announcement.
Bids must be delivered to Bad Homburg, Germany on or before May 29, 2013. The post-qualification bid envelopes will be opened immediately.
A 400 KV transmission line shall be installed between the 400/230/110 KV substation Tirana 2, which is in operation and the border with Kosovo at Morina. Between Tirana and the area near the town of Vau i Dejes in northern Albania, a 400 KV double circuit transmission line exists.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Energoinvest which signed the contract with the state-owned Transmission System Operator on the southern 110 kW line has been the cause of a deadlock on the construction of an interconnection line between Albania and Kosovo since more than one year. Officially, the project was delayed and cancelled due to tender problems and disagreements between the managing Albanian state-owned company and the donor, a German development bank, over whether price or quality are more important in the project.
Two companies, Croatia’s Dalekovod and Bosnia’s Energo Invest, had submitted bids to build the interconnection line between Albania and Kosovo. Dalekovod’s bid was 36 million euros. Energo Invest said it could do it for 29 million euros. Dalekovod was selected as the winner over quality concerns on the lower bid by Energo, voiced by KfW, the financing development bank, Albanian media reported.
The deadlock came to an end after the Albanian government and Germany’s KfW have agreed that the project’s first lot will be implemented by Croatia’s Dalekovod while the second lot will be retendered.
Following the delay for more than year of an energy project vital to Kosovo, a front-page article by a Kosovo newspaper accused Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha in early 2012 of protecting the interests of a Bosnian company with alleged ties to controversial Serb investors. The accusation sparked a new row in Albania’s political scene.
The KfW-funded project linking Albanian to Kosovo would complete Albania’s connection to its neighbors, after implementation of the 400 kw Tirana-Podgorica interconnection line, linking Albania to Montenegro. Kosovo on the other hand would depend on the link far more, as all its imports currently come from Serbia.
Last January, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Energoinvest won a Euro 49 million contract to built a 110 kW power line in southern Albania which will significantly improve the transmission capacities of existing. The projected funded by the German government through the KfW Development Bank will minimize electricity losses and increase the security of supply as a precondition for improving power supply in the south of Albania. The project contributes to sustainable economic development in southern Albania. In particular, it will support the development of tourism sector with the aim of improving the living conditions of the population in the southern region of the country.