TIRANA (Albania), August 27 (SeeNews) – Albanian power exchange ALPEX is inviting bids in a tender to set up an electronic trading platform for the day-ahead and intraday markets for the operation of common energy exchange market between Albania and Kosovo, it said on Friday.
The bidding deadline is September 16, as the bids should not exceed 225 million leks ($2.1 million/1.8 million euro), ALPEX said in a tender notice published by Albania’s public procurement agency.
The assignment must be completed within 48 months, ALPEX added.
The Tirana-based ALPEX was established in October last year by Albania’s transmission system operator OST and its Kosovo counterpart KOSTT as its only shareholders with 57.25% and 42.75% of shares, respectively, following a memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries in 2017.
The energy exchange aims to facilitate sales and purchases of energy at prices that reflect the real market value and eliminate the need of public tenders.
The governments of Albania and Kosovo see the common energy market as a very important step towards increasing electricity transmission between the two countries. They also expect the common market to improve power supplies to consumers in Albania and Kosovo and add value to the energy infrastructure in the region of Southeast Europe.
The first step toward establishing a common market was made in June 2016 with the inauguration of 400 kV interconnection power line worth 75.5 million euro between Albania and Kosovo financed by the German government through the KfW development bank.
Almost all of Albania’s electricity is produced by hydro power plants, while over 98% of Kosovo's electricity output is generated by coal-fired power stations. Both countries suffer power shortages due to insufficient output, the age of their grids and theft.
(1 euro = 120.424 leks)