November 1 (SeeNews) - Albania will open on December 4 an international tender for the construction of a 23 million euro ($33.14 million) national electricity dispatch centre, Albanian state-owned grid operator OST said on Thursday.
The construction, financed by Italy, is expected to be completed by January 2011, OST said in a statement.
The centre construction is part of Albania’s efforts to upgrade its outdated electricity infrastructure, which along with a chronic energy deficit, is considered the main obstacle to economic growth.
The poor condition of the electricity transmission infrastructure causes losses as high as 30% of all the energy available on the grid.
In the same statement OST said it is preparing the tender documentation on the reconstruction of four electricity substations, at Fierze, Koman, Vau i Dejes and Elbasan, with a total value of 24 million euro, financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
OST is trying also to find investments for the construction of a 400kV electricity transmission line to link Albania with the neighbouring U.N.-run Serbian province of Kosovo. The line, estimated to cost 40 million euro, will diversify Albania’s electricity import routes because Kosovo is to build by 2020 a third coal-fired power plant, with an installed capacity of 1,800 MW to 2,100 MW, worth an estimated 2.47 billion euro.
In the second half of this year Croatian blue-chip power transmission equipment manufacturer Dalekovod started the construction of a 400 kV, 42 million euro transmission line to link Albania’s capital Tirana with Montenegro’s capital Podgorica. The project is expected to be completed in July 2009.
($=0.694 euro)