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EBRD to help modernise Albania's electric transmission system
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed today in Tirana an ECU 10 million loan in favour of the Albanian power corporation Korporata Elektroenergjetike Shqiptare (KESH), responsible for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity throughout Albania. This is the Bank's second project with KESH.
Olivier Descamps, Director for EBRD operations in Albania, who signed on behalf of the Bank, said: “The project will reduce the present high level of technical losses in the transmission network and will help improve Albania’s balance of payments by providing for increased exports of electricity”.
The EBRD’s overall objectives are to reduce non-technical losses by improving metering arrangements, improve energy efficiency by reducing technical losses and support further sector restructuring and commercialisation.
Achievement of these objectives will result in an increase in revenues for KESH, restore export capacity, improve the reliability of power supply to local consumers and industries, and encourage progress toward sector commercialisation.
The estimated cost of the project is ECU 90.7 million, of which ECU 69.5 million is foreign cost and ECU 21.2 million is local cost. The other co-financiers are the World Bank (IDA), the Japanese Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund, the governments of Italy and Switzerland.
The EBRD’s activities in Albania’s energy sector are closely co-ordinated with those of the World Bank and bilateral donors.
The project is one of the largest investment and reform initiatives undertaken in Albania in recent times and international support is essential for its success.
KESH is a state-owned enterprise, established in 1992 in accordance with the Law of State Entities and operated under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Mineral and Energy Resources. In July 1995 the Albanian Parliament passed a package of laws to enable major changes in the management of the power sub-sector. The laws provide for the establishment of a regulatory system, the staged privatisation of KESH’s distribution functions and the development of independent private power production.
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