Energy financial crisis

The power distribution company (CEZ) has had significant losses in the last two years in Albania, laming the state and the policies of the Energy Regulation Entity. Sources from the Albanian Power Corporation (KESH) say that CEZ has not been paying energy since several months now.

KESH says that CEZ owes 40 million USD to them, if all debts of public institutions are reduced. On the other hand, KESH has not paid the energy they buy from private import companies for seven months now, accumulating a 35 million EUR debt.

The import companies have blocked the KESH accounts, making the corporation unable to make financial actions, even to pay the employees. On the other hand, KESH has blocked the CEZ accounts for unpaid bills of March and April of this year. The news is confirmed by both CEZ and KESH. The situation is conveying the crisis to other private operators.

KESH has not been paying small power producers that have built concessionary hydro power plants and the debts go to 5 million EUR.  KESH, CEZ and small power producers are all in loans and have no financial abilities to pay anymore, becoming a concern for the banks too.

On February 2012, the Albanian government tried to unblock the debt crisis in the energy sector by signing an agreement with CEZ. The core of the agreement was on the debt payment. The government charged on KESH all debts of public institutions towards CEZ.

But CEZ also and the Transmission System Operator owed KESH 110 million USD, while the debt of the public institutions to CEZ was about 70 million USD. With this agreement, if CEZ paid the debt, the government would decrease the energy price through which CEZ bought power from KESH, when on December the government decided the contrary. But the agreement seems unfulfilled. According to KESH, CEZ didn’t pay the debts on time. But CEZ said that they had started paying some of the obligations of the agreement, specifically 6.7 million USD.

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