TIRANA, Aug. 20 – Albania will import from 2.4 to 2.8 billion kWh of electricity by the end of this year, the greatest amount ever imported by the country, according to sources in the Albanian Electro-Energy Corporation, or KESH.
Until now. KESH has never imported over 1.4 billion kWh.
The government imports some 8 million kWh at a high price from within the region and produces only 5 million kWh a day.
The country is currently suffering from 6-20 hours of power outages a day.
Post-communist Albania has suffered from bad management within the power corporation which has not collected payments from individual consumers and small businesses.
The country has also suffered from a continuous lack of rain.
Albania produces more than 95 percent of electricity from hydro resources, which have been so scarce this year due to a continuous lack of rain.
Making matters worse, no new power sources, or alternate ones, have been built in the last 20 years.
