The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Albania Approves Electricity Price Hike
Tirana | 15 December 2009 |
Albania's Energy Regulatory Agency approved a 13 per cent electricity price rise on Tuesday, an increase that came significantly below that requested by local power utility OSSH.
OSSH, which is majority owned by Czech power giant CEZ, had requested a 24 per cent increase in the price of electricity for 2010, for a book value of 102 million euro. OSSH was privatised in May.
According to the privatisation contract, the Albanian government will have to compensate CEZ for the shortfall in revenue that would result from the smaller price hike.
Albania has lately been affected by a devastating deficiency of electricity, due mainly to a lack of investment in power development. The annual volume of imported electricity varies according to the availability of electricity produced at hydroelectric power plants in the country; in 2008, Albania imported approximately 37.5 per cent of its annual consumption, worth roughly 200 million euro.
In Albania, electricity consumption per capita is less than one third of the consumption in the Czech Republic (2 MWh versus 6.3 MWh per capita). In comparison with Austria, Albanian electricity consumption per capita is even less than one quarter of the Austrian consumption.
Analysts expect that electricity consumption in Albania will grow by 5 per cent each year; a fast growth rate in the region that is experienced only in Turkey. In other European countries, electricity consumption grows roughly 2-3 per cent a year.
