PRISTINA (Kosovo), December 27 (SeeNews) – Kosovo government said it successfully concluded the process of expropriation of land in a new coal mining zone - a move aimed at increasing domestic coal output and averting a power shortage.
The continuously delayed expropriation of land in the Hade and Shipitulle villages near the capital Pristina was completed after the residents of those villages signed contracts with Kosovo's power corporation KEK, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.
KEK has already begun work for extracting coal near Shipitulle, according to the statement.
Earlier this month, the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo warned that the country may face an energy crisis in 2018 due to delays in the expropriation process and shortage of coal supplies.
The output from the new coal mining zone will increase KEKs electricity generation capacity by 260 MW while at the same time it will decrease the need for imports, KEK said in a statement on Tuesday.
Kosovo's thermal power plants are currently generating about 400 MW of electricity, while a further 400 MW are being imported, the economic development ministry said earlier this month.
Some 98% of electricity generated in Kosovo comes from two old, inefficient and highly polluting lignite-fired power plants, Kosovo A and B. Kosovo citizens suffer power shortages due to insufficient output, ageing grids and thefts, according to a recent World Bank report on Kosovo's energy sector.
Kosovo's coal output decreased to 1.8 million tonnes in the third quarter of 2017, from 2.3 million tonnes in the prior-year period, Kosovo's statistical agency said last month.