Turkish-Albanian consortium will build 120 MW HPP in Albania

Ayen Enerji & Fusha, a Turkish-Albanian consortium, has won a contract for construction and operation of a 120 MW hydro power plant in Albania, with a 35-year concession period.

Construction works on Kalivac HPP are projected to cost EUR 125.3 million and last two years and a half, the ministry of energy and infrastructure in Tirana said, SeeNews reports.

Annual electricity production at the future hydro power plant located near Kalivac village, in southern Albania, is projected at 366.6 million kWh. The construction of Kalivac HPP started 20 years ago.

The statement said that Albania gets 100% of its electricity from hydropower plants but that no new major power generation facilities have been built in the country for more than 30 years. It added that seven medium sized hydropower plants of a total of 130 MW were built between 2012 and 2015.

The Albanian Ministry of Energy and Industry published a tender for the construction of the Kalivac hydropower plant on the river Vjosa earlier, in May this year. Previously, the ministry broke off a concession contract with the Italian company BEG which agreed to build a 108 MW hydropower plant in 2012 but failed to complete the project.

According to non-governmental portal investinalbania.org, the Ministry set specific criteria for the evaluation of offers were defined in order to reduce environmental impact and improve the initial project. The ministry set six criteria for the concession – the value of the concession fee, ecological and social effects, installed power, project completion time frame, connection to the national power grid and an assessment of the work carried out by the previous concession holder.

Moreover, the Ministry highlights that special attention was paid to the environmental impact of the projects. Thus measures were taken for reducing the impact on the water stream by creating a special fishway.

According to a 2008 report by the Energy Community, Albania produced 98% of its electricity from hydropower plants, most of it from three power plants along the Drin river. The country’s only thermal power plant Fier, which had six 31 MW generators, was shut down as an unsustainable enterprise because of its antiquated technology and high oil prices.