TIRANA, May 24 – The announcement of a tender for a new hydropower plant, known as the Skavica HPP project, in the northern Drin river has sparked political debate and protests by the local community in the northern Dibra region which risks losing their property from the HPP construction.
The government announced this week a tender scheduled for July 11 on the construction of the Katundi Ri hydropower plant where a Turkish joint venture seems advantaged after receiving an 8 point bonus under a government decision following an unsolicited bid.
The opposition Democratic Party described the tender a mere formality, saying that the winner, Turkey’s Suzer company, has already been predetermined.
“The truth is this is a pre-determined deal with illegal private negotiations, initially by [Prime Minister] Edi Rama and then [Finance Minister] Arben Ahmetaj who has made dozens of luxury charter trips,” said Grida Duma, the opposition Democratic Party secretary for public relations, warning that the Democratic Party will undertake legal action to undo what she called a corruptive concession.
The HPP project also sparked political debate last January after a statement by then Economy Minister Arben Ahmetaj that a Turkish joint venture will build a huge hydropower plant in northern Albania.
On its website, the Suzer Group has announced that it has formed a joint venture deal with the Nurol Group for the construction of a hydropower plant in the Drini River in Albania’s northeastern Dibra region.
“The first foot of the project is the HEPP Hydroelectric Power Plant of 57 MW in Katundi Region with a value of approximately 110 million Euro. It is contemplated that the project will start at the end of 2015 and complete in 30 months,” says the company.
The Skavica hydropower plant is an old project, first conceived in the 1980s during Albania’s communist rule and aimed at using the remaining space of Drini River. It has been considered a very strategic project for Albania as the plant could produce up to 1.2 billion kilowatt/hours per year, while also increasing the amount of electricity produced at the three other existing state-run hydro power plants on the Drin River.
Local inhabitants staged protests earlier this year fearing lack of compensation from the HPP project which is estimated to inundate 2,200 hectares and displace 1,460 people.
The initial early 1980s project affected 5,800 hectares and displaced about 10,000 people from the Dibra area.
Last May, the Albanian government also gave the green light to a new big hydropower plant along the southern Vjosa River, defying environmentalists and civil society activists who staged protests earlier this year to protect what they called a unique ecosystem and the “Blue Heart of Europe.”
The energy ministry said a Turkish joint venture has been awarded a 35-year concession to build and operate a 99.5 MW hydropower plant in the southern Vjosa River, in what is expected to be one of the country’s biggest HPPs.
The joint venture between Turkey’s à‡inar-San Hafriyat and Ayen Enerji Anonim Sirketi plans to invest about 101 million euros in three years and produce an annual 305 million kWh.
