October 25 (SeeNews) - Losses in Albania's power distribution network were reduced to 27.6% in the first nine months of 2016 from 31.1% in the year-ago period, the country's state-owned Electricity Power Distribution Operator (OSHEE) said.
The power distributor collected 42.9 billion leks ($342.8 million/315 million euro) from electricity bills in January-September, an increase of 3.4% year-on-year, it said on its website on Saturday. The OSHEE's revenues have been growing steadily since 2013 when they totalled 28.8 billion leks in the first nine months of that year.
"For the first time in 25 years, we can make investments because of increases in revenue," the World Bank quoted OSHEE administrator for distribution, Adrian Cela, as saying earlier this month.
"People have become conscious of the need to pay for electricity, and the growing revenue is returned through investments that ensure better supply and minimize technical and non-technical losses," Cela added.
The World Bank is supporting a set of reforms in the country's energy sector through the five-year Power Recovery Project launched in September 2014. The project, financed mainly by the Bank, aims to reduce electricity losses to 14% by 2019.
(1 euro=136.194 leks)