New applications for small hydro in Albania

Albania’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy announced in mid-February that it had received an application for a construction permit for a small hydropower plant from the local company Deliu Group.

Deliu Group plans to build a powerplant with an installed capacity of up to 2 MW near the Thana reservoir in the southwestern town of Lushnja, the Ministry announced on 16 February.

In January the energy sector regulator also announced it had begun the process of licensing four small hydropower projects with installed capacity of up to 2 MW each from two developers. Luçente Koncesionare submitted an application for a generation licence for the 1.038 MW Spatharë plant while Shoqëria HEC Llëngë applied for a licence for a cascade of three projects totalling 3.53 MW, comprising the Llënga 1 (1.73 MW), Llënga 2 (300 kW) and Llënga 3 (1.4 MW). In December of last year, local company Gjeokonsult & Co submitted an application to the Ministry for a building permit for a small plant with a capacity of up to 2 MW close to the city of Shkodra.

In 2017 the energy regulatory agency awarded generation licences to nine concessionaires for 12 hydropower projects totalling 107.96 MW, including: the 74.6 MW Fangut project on the river Fan in northeastern Albania, which was commissioned by Ayen AS Energji, a joint venture between Turkish private power producer Ayen Enerji and local AS Energji in August 2017; the 11 MW Lumzi and 4.5 MW Tuç plants developed by M.C Inerte Lumzi; the 5.8 MW Kabash plant built by Energji Univers; and, a cascade of three projects (Lusen 1, 2 and 3) totalling 1.515 MW by Eurobiznes.