TIRANA, September 13 /ATA/ Europe is facing an unprecedented energy crisis, where the poorest countries, such as Albania, are affected the most, due to the galloping increase in prices.
Although Albania provides itself with a significant part of energy, according to the administrator of KESH sh.a., Ergys Verdho, this is not enough and our country occasionally needs to import energy.
Since the end of the first 6 months of 2021, it was clearly seen that the energy would no longer be at the levels of the pandemic period and that the drought in the second 6 months would directly affect Albania and the countries of Western Balkans, which rely on water resources in about 48% of generating capacities.
The administrator of KESH claimed that Albania will not import energy without using its capacities to the maximum.
“If there is no rain, the water level in the basin drops and Albania will be forced to go to the stock market to buy energy, an energy that is currently extremely expensive. Energy markets appear with great fluctuations and uncertainty”. Currently, HUDEX (HUPX Future) predicts prices at levels of 550-750 Eur/MWh for the remaining period of 2022, while last week the prices were presented with values up to 1000 Euro/MWh, which makes it even more difficult to unpredictable in the near future”, emphasized Verdho.
Of course, Albania produces energy from cascade HPPs, but the volume of water to produce energy is dependent on flows and rainfall, which are not constant raw materials for production, as they depend on the weather.
But, despite the difficult water situation in the country and the galloping increase in imported energy prices, administrator Verdho declared that there will be no price increase for Albanian families. He added that the information circulating in the media regarding this argument is speculation for political interests.
“The government has set a basic band of 800 kilowatts of consumption per month, a band that includes about 96% of subscribers. In this way, the layers in need are not affected. Whoever consumes more than this band, will pay more, as the energy provided through import costs today 10 times more than the price with which the consumer is billed”, he said.
Skavica is also a long-term project, which will be completed within 2030. The water tank of 2.1 billion m3 of water will be available to KESH and will be used during the dry months.
In the list of short-term investments is also the production of energy through floating power plants: the platforms that will generate energy have arrived in the port of Vlora, which will serve as a guarantee for the supply during the winter months, as well as reduce the financial exposure of KESH to import prices./k.s/j.p/r.e/p.s./
