December 20 (SeeNews) - Albania and Italy have agreed to do a feasibility study for the construction of an underwater electricity line between the two countries, Albanian energy minister Belinda Balluku said on Wednesday.
“Our power transmission operator [OST], its Italian counterpart and investors who are willing to invest in this power line have established a working group to do within 2024 a feasibility study, which will open the way towards an agreement with tangible financial, commercial and technical terms,” Balluku said, as seen in a video published on social media.
Balluku made the announcement during an groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a 400-kV power line that would connect the city of Elbasan in central Albania to North Macedonia’s southwestern city of Bitola. The project is part of the European Commission’s initiative to establish an East-West electricity transmission corridor between Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Italy, Balluku noted.
An underwater power line connecting Albania to Italy has been in the plans of the two countries' governments for years now but development has been delayed due to the complexity of the project and the high costs associated with it, Balluku added.