Record prices and retail market / Unlimited energy import bill, government comes out with 'spontaneous' measures

In October last year, Prime Minister Edi Rama declared the emergency of the energy crisis by presenting a three-point plan for dealing with and protecting household consumers and businesses.

Guaranteeing electricity supply for all, protecting households and small businesses from rising energy (there will be no price increase for both groups) and the € 200 million fund to provide the above two points, were three points of the government plan to cope with the crisis.

However, today the government is facing a difficult situation with electricity. In the conditions when the Drini cascade has reached the last point of "survival", the government must prepare the check to pay for the import of energy, ensuring what Rama always repeats in the refrain: if we do not produce, we import, but energy will not to be absent ”.

The burden that will be borne by the public companies of the sector, the state budget or directly and indirectly businesses and families, remains unclear, as long as the limits of the worst case scenario, no one knows how to give.

From June 1, medium-sized businesses may face a higher energy price of 18.8 lek that they refuse to pay now. KESH in updating the latest data, has announced only the level of the HPP of Fierza with 259 meters.

Unlike other years, the 'special' of 2022 is that energy market prices, which is at retail, have caught records. Which means that the cost to the state budget is many times greater. And as we face a crisis no longer anyway, the question arises: how much can we resist?

First, Albania is dependent on energy imports. Despite updating the level of the cascades, Albania invests more in the purchase of energy than in its production.

According to KESH data, on March 25, the daily production from the cascade was 4200 MWh, while the import was 11 300 MWh, which means that 73% of the energy with which KESH is supplying the Universal Service Supplier (FSHU part of OSHEE Group ) is import.

Më herët, baza kryesore ishte prodhimi në kaskadë mes 13-17 mijë MËh në ditë, si një formë për t’u mbrojtur nga çmimet e larta në bursa, të cilat kulmuan në javët e para të marsit, si efekt i luftës Rusi-Ukrainë. Tharja e Fierzës i zbehu pritshmëritë, duke bërë qe ministrja e Infrastrukturës dhe Energjetikës Belinda Balluku, të deklarojë rritjen e importit sidomos pas 20 Marsit.

Qeveria ndodhet sot përpara lëshimit të një “çeku”, i cili nuk dihet se çfarë vlere mund të kapë me importet. Por, duke marrë parasysh se energjia ndodhet me pakicë në treg e me çmime mjaft të larta, parashikimi është që të arrijë një vlerë të lartë në shpejtësi rekord.

Only in the first three months of the year, imports amounted to 92 million euros ("Monitor" calculations from official data for the period 1 January 2022 to 25 March). For January, over 32 million euros were spent on imports, while in February, when the water situation in the Drini cascade was even more problematic, imports resulted in over 48 million euros.

March turned out to be more positive than the government predicted, according to which at an average price of 500 euros on the stock exchange, imports could go to 100 million euros for March alone.

In order to save energy, the government undertook some truncated practices. Planning days off, turning off unnecessary lights in administrative institutions or lights on major axes such as highways after 00:00, are intended by the government to save oil and energy at the same time.