ALBANIA: Albania tackles power thieves, as part of battle against low electricity supplies

As Albania continues to suffer in its long-running power crisis, the manager of the country's power monopoly goes out on the street to round up those believed to be stealing electricity. Gjergj Bojaxhi is the manager of the KESH power corporation, and fighting theft has turned him into an electricity sheriff. He claims half a million illegal electricity links have now been cut. KESH urges consumers not to steal power because theft and technical losses account for an historic average of 40 percent of its production. One percent means four days without power. Bojaxhi says KESH uses every means it can, including the police and the courts, to make sure everyone understands it is not profitable to steal electricity. Raiding thieves is but one of KESH's headaches, the power monopoly synonymous with the Balkan state's 20-hour power cuts, the halting of economic growth and worsening quality of life. While demand has been increasing by eight percent each year since Albania dumped communism in 1990, power has been produced with the same hydropower plants built by late Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha. That makes Albania almost fully dependant on rain. "The lack of uninterrupted supply of electricity has come mainly due to a very dry year," said Bojaxhi. "As you know, the Albanian electricity system is practically one hundred percent dependent on production from hydros. And this has been the driest year we've recorded in the last 15, 20 years and it's probably one of the driest in the last 40 or 50 years," he added. Two years into government, the ruling Democratic Party of prime minister Sali Berisha blames lack of rain for failing to keep its promise to supply power for 24 hours although Berisha claimed that importing power would work the magic. It did not. On the streets of Tirana, cars often negotiate the roads without the help of traffic lights, and shops are powered by generators. "When the power's shut down it is not nice, you know, but anyway people manage somehow to get through the lights, and on the street. They try to be nice with each other. Everybody hopes someday it will be better," says Tirana resident and artist, Bashkim Ahmeti. Clothing store owner Sotir Qiriaqi says his business has been badly affected by the power crisis. "Thas unfortunately turned into a normal situation because it has been present for a long time," he said. "We have spent more on fuel and power generators. The government is playing deaf and mute and nobody explains if we shall ever have uninterrupted power some day. Now we are surprised when we have power and not when we don't have power. The price of fuel is skyrocketing. This is a catastrophe every day," he told Reuters Television. Buildings are surrounded by generators that rev into action with deafening noise when power goes out. The media regularly reports what rains mean for the plant's water level. But work has now begun on a new thermal power plant in the city of Vlore. Bojaxhi believes the 97-megaWatt power plant and a 400 KV transmission line to Montenegro will end 17 years of total neglect for new sources of generating power and eliminate the crisis while preparing KESH for sale. "I fully believe that with the construction of these two projects, which should be completed by 2009, we should be able to take the word 'energy crisis' out of our, let's say, daily vocabulary," he said, before the lights went out in his office, ending the interview.

ITN Source | November 20, 2007

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