August 22 (SeeNews) - Losses in Albania's power distribution network were reduced to 28.1% in the first seven months of 2017 from 28.6% in the comparative year-ago period, the country's state-owned Electricity Power Distribution Operator (OSHEE) said.
The power distributor collected 37.1 billion leks ($330.1 million/280.6 million euro) from electricity bills in January-July, an increase of 4.2% year-on-year, OSHEE said in a statement on Monday.
The total amount of sold electricity rose by 2.9% on the year, as a result of the more intensive field controls, OSHEE said.
In July alone, OSHEE collected 5.1 billion leks from electricity bills, up 8.26%, while power distribution losses were cut by 1.3 percentage points to 24.69%, the company added.
The World Bank is supporting a set of reforms in Albania's energy sector through the five-year Power Recovery Project launched in September 2014. The project, financed mainly by the World Bank, aims to reduce electricity losses to 14% by 2019.
(1 euro=132.237 leks)