The energy system needs 1 billion EUR of urgent investments for returning to normality. “When the Czech privatized the company, the newest asset in it was 36 years old. More than 40 years have passed for the newest asset today. The need is very big and the possibilities are modest”, says Ilir Bejtja, Deputy Minister of Energy and Industry.
For this year, the government plans to invest 150 million USD or 122 million EUR that will be taken through a loan with soft conditions from the World Bank.
“The first component is related to supporting and supplying with electricity the population and consumers. The second component is related to improving the distribution infrastructure with two main lines, 300.000 meters, while the rest is related to the distribution network and sub-stations that will be built. The third component is related to the improvement of the Distribution Center measurements”, Bejtja declared.
But the investment bill that goes beyond the 10% of the GDP is not the only financial need of the system. Many years of bad managements, the lack of investments and massive thefts have created a deficit of more than 500 million EUR in this system, materialized in a complicated chain of debts ebtween the three public companies, KESH, OSHEE and OST.
“The total damage mounts up to 150 billion ALL in the system and it cannot be recovered with a 150 million USD loan”, Bejtja declared. The government has started an operation for reducing the losses and for increasing the encasement, which would make the financial crisis of the energy system a bit easier, but returning it to normalization seems very difficult.
News source/photo credits: ATA
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.