TIRANA, Feb. 15 – More than a year after the launch of an aggressive nationwide campaign to curb electricity thefts and collect accumulated unpaid bills, the country’s state-run power distribution operator is back to profitable after a failed three and a half year privatization which ended in early 2013.
Distribution operator, OSHEE, said the company registered profits of about 14.9 billion lek (€106 mln) in 2015 following losses of 4.5 billion lek (€32 mln) in 2014 and a record high of 27 billion lek (about 192 mln) in 2013 when the company was taken back under state administration following a failed privatization by Czech Republic’s CEZ.
However, more than one year after the launch of the nationwide campaign, grid losses although having considerably reduced remain high.
Grid losses in the distribution network, the majority of which include thefts, dropped to 31.3 percent in 2015, compared to 37.8 percent in 2014 and a record high of 45 percent in 2013.
The improved financial situation allowed the OSHEE distribution operator to increase investments in the dilapidated distribution grid to 7.5 billion lek (€53 mln) in 2015. OSHEE and World Bank investments for 2016 are projected at 12 billion lek (€85 mln).
The energy reform although painful for thousands of poor households has lifted the state-run electricity sector out of financial collapse, with energy becoming one of the key drivers of growth.
The aggressive campaign launched in late 2014 which has also been accompanied with arrests over electricity thefts has had a negative impact on consumption as most debtor households also have to pay around 2,500 lek (€17.5) a month in installments for accumulated debts in addition to their monthly consumption.
Since early 2013 the distribution operator, OSHEE, former CEZ Shperndarje, has been under state management following the departure of Czech Republic’s CEZ and an out-of-court deal in mid-2014 avoiding potential Arbitration penalties of $200 million. Under the deal signed by the Albanian government and CEZ, whose 70 percent stake is owned by the Czech government, Prague-based CEZ will get in annual installments in the next four years a total of Euro 95 million, an amount slightly lower to its initial investment in the Albanian distribution system, but half of the Euro 200 million CEZ had warned it would claim in international arbitration proceedings.
