Comments and analysis: ODA
Source: Energy Report, INSTAT
Aggregate sources represent all possible alternatives for securing the necessary electricity. A country can produce it itself, or when production is insufficient it can resort to importing it. This is the reason why production and import are mirrors of one another. The less is produced the more is imported, and vice versa.
As can be seen in the graph, aggregate sources which correspond to the total quantity of electricity obtained during the year, have had ups and downs. For as long as there have been continuous interruptions of electricity, it has not been easy to validate the relationship between sources and demand for electricity. Only after 2008, when interruptions have primarily come due to network repairs, a credible evaluation of the demand for electricity can be done, since the sources of electricity have sufficed to meet the market’s demand. Years 2001, 2002, and 2007 which are the years with the lowest sources also feature the biggest electricity crises for the country.
The chart clearly shows that production dominates the other sources of electricity. The fact that 97% of the electric energy comes from hydropower sources makes Albania a country that is heavily dependent on precipitation. It is for this reason that possible diversification of sources such as TEC-s running on coal or oil, have often been subject of heated discussions, and feasibility studies.
When it cannot not be denied that there is a definite need to diversify sources of production, the fact that presently only 35% of hydropower sources is being utilized should also not be overlooked. In analyzing the domestic electricity production, interestingly since 2008, the Energy Report published by INSTAT, production by Thermal Power Plants is zero, at a time when the Vlora TEC, a USD 100 million investment has been operating since 2009.
The main reason for construction this plant was to diversify the production sources in the country, thereby decreasing the dependency on foreign imports. Nonetheless the high cost of producing energy at this plant means that Albania is better off to import energy. This high cost of production should server as food for thought for future plans to construct other TEC-s.
Importing is the second source of electricity for Albania. 2004 and 2005 are the years with the lowest level of imports, but power interruptions were still present. During 2007-2009 imports were high, despite the increasing domestic production. This was due to government’s decision to secure the necessary energy at any cost, since the costs associated with power interruptions exceeded the cost of imports. The production increase in 2010 reached the highgest level seen since 1998, and thereby substantially reducing the imports compared to the preceeding years.
All the information is shown in the following table:
Comments and analysis: ODA
Source: Energy Report, INSTAT