| Albania: Energy crisis cuts working hours |
| 28 July 2007 | 10:08
| Source:
BIRN |
TIRANA --
The Albanian cabinet has decided to cut the working hours of public employees amid a national energy shortage.
Beginning 30 July, government offices will be open only five hours a day “because of the energy crisis that the country is facing,” government spokesman Grid Rroji said Friday.
The decision taken after a recommendation by Energy Minister Genc Ruli does not include the employees of the health system and emergency response employees.
A drought that has engulfed the Balkans this summer has lowered reservoirs and sliced the ability of the country’s hydropower plants to generate electricity.
The greater demand for water has also made it impossible for the Albanian Power Corporation, KESH, to import large quantities of electricity.
Add to that the heavy use of air conditioners due to record temperatures and Albanians have had to deal with massive power cuts. Power outages in some areas of the country have lasted up to 16 hours a day.
Albania’s power generation system hasn’t seen any major investments since the early 1980s, when its cash-strapped former communist regime stopped investing in new hydropower dams.
After the fall of communism, the demand for energy grew rapidly. The Albanian power grid is estimated to need US$ 1.6bn in investments to eliminate power outages.
Construction on a new World Bank-funded thermal power plant is expected to start in the city of Vlora in southern Albania at the end of this year.
KESH, the stated-owned electricity company, which has a monopoly in the market, is preparing a request to national regulators for a price hike due to the higher costs of imports.
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