The number of members of the Albanian Energy Exchange has reached 16, where the latest in this process is Devoll Hydopower, part of Statkraft Nordics.
The progress of memberships since April, when the platform started operating, has been slow, but representatives of private companies and the stock exchange have underlined that a number of conditions must be met to be part of this market. Devoll Hydropower is the first of the three largest companies in the country that have invested in significant capacities and are finally included in the stock exchange.
The hydropower plants on the Devoll River are the largest hydropower project of the last 30 years implemented in the country. It includes the two large HPPs Banja and Moglica as well as the Kokel HPP project. The first two hydropower plants in operation have an installed capacity of about 256 Me and a projected production of about 700 GWh/year.
Meanwhile, another project of Devoll Hydropower envisages increasing the capacity by 800 and 1600 MW with an additional investment calculated at 900 million euros.
Regarding the launch of the stock exchange operations, the first to close the membership process earlier this year were public companies, and then this has gradually come with the increase in the number of private companies. Despite the start of operations today, a modest amount of energy is still traded on this exchange.
In October, a total of 96.5 thousand MWh of energy were traded on this exchange at an average price of 107.79 euros. This amount remains small as public companies continue to purchase energy for their needs through auctions announced on their websites, but the aim is to go towards purchases on a platform.
After the start of the operation, the short-term goals of the Exchange were the operationalization of the day-advance market for the bidding area of Kosovo and the merger of the Albania-Kosovo energy markets, as the first project in the Western Balkans.
“ALPEX will present in April next year the auction market within the same day, with three auctions for Albania and in June and the merger of the auction market within the same day with Kosovo, which is again the first project in WB6 (Western Balkans).
The goals of OST, together with ALPEX, are for the union of the markets to move to another dimension, that of the countries of the European Union, and we are at the beginning of a project between Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Greece, led by Bursa Greek Energy, in order to access the European energy markets” the administrator of OST Skerdi Drenova would confirm earlier for “Monitor”./N.Maho
Source: Monitor Magazine
