Statkraft Albania’s project Devoll Hydropower (DHP) Sh.A. signed a contract with a Norwegian engineering and design firm. Multiconsult was picked for providing contract staff and for consulting services.
Hydropower stations, Banja and Moglicë, one of which is underground, will have total capacity of 256 MW. The stations will produce an estimated 729 GWh per year, increasing Albania’s electricity generation by around 17%. “We have been working on the details of the new contract for six months… We have been given the contract largely on the back of the good work of our employees who are already on site. I am particularly pleased to see that the project has given many younger members of staff the opportunity to gain extremely valuable international experience,” says Multiconsult’s project manager Richard Duncumb.
The power stations are located on the Devoll river, in the valley of the same name, around 70 kilometres southeast of capital Tirana. The project, which will make use of a 555 metre drop in the river, involves building a 20 kilometre long tunnel, as well as two large dams: one of 90 metres for Banja and a 150 metre facility for Moglicë.
Construction work started in 2013, and the two project phases are due for completion this year and in 2018. The concession contract entitles Statkraft to build, own and operate the power stations until they are transferred to Albanian authorities. Multiconsult has been working with Norconsult since the pre-project phase in 2009, with particular responsibility for Banja, as well as the underground works, Duncumb said. “When the tender phase was completed in 2011, we signed a consulting contract for the construction phase via Norconsult. That contract recently expired, and we have now signed a new contract directly with DHP and Statkraft,” he added.
