Tirana – The opposition has accused the government and state energy companies of holding illegal tenders for energy procurements which cost taxpayers millions of euro.

Opposition leader Lulzim Basha accused the public utility company OSHEE of buying electricity from traders at the price of 57 euro per MWh, while at the same time the Albania Power Corporation, KESH, was selling traders electricity for 38 euro per MWh.

“All this abuse cost Albanian taxpayers four million euro in two weeks,” Basha told a press conference on Friday.

“I call on the general prosecutor’s office to immediately start an investigation,” he added.

Data obtained by BIRN show that KESH, the public electricity generation company that owns Albania’s dams on the River Drin, has held three tenders for the sale of energy in the last two weeks, with the average price of electricity ranging from 14.39 euro per MWh to 38.4 euro per MWh.

At the same time, the state-owned electricity distribution company, OSHEE, has held a tender securing 127,600 MWh, for an average price of 57 euro per MWh.

The Ministry of Energy has rejected the opposition accusation, arguing that the current regulatory framework does not allow KESH to sell electricity directly to OSHEE when it has a surplus.

According to the current market model, KESH supplies electricity through a regulated price to OSHEE for energy it distributes to consumers. In the deregulated market, OSHEE has to buy electricity lost in the grid due to theft or technical losses.

According to the ministry, OSHEE cannot procure this electricity from KESH for its losses, because the current market model does not allow the two state companies to sell to each other directly./balkaninsight/