[ALBSA-Info] Electricity to Kosova

[aalibali at law.harvard.edu]

Electricity for power-strapped Kosovo held up by infrastructure concerns 
By Elena Becatoros, Associated Press, 1/29/2000 19:57 
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) Electricity from Greece, which would alleviate 
shortages in Kosovo, has been held up by infrastructure problems in Albania and 
Macedonia, officials said Saturday. 

The power would have to transit these countries to reach Kosovo. 

According to the U.N. mission in Kosovo, the province needs 620-650 megawatts of
power at peak periods this winter. The main power plant at Obilic can only 
generate about 450 megawatts. 

Although the station escaped damage during the 78-day NATO airstrikes against 
Yugoslavia last year, it has suffered severe neglect over the past decade. 

Approximately 100 megawatts are currently being imported from Serbia, Macedonia 
and Albania. 

Greece has promised to donate at least 60 megawatts of power a day and said it 
could substantially increase this amount if necessary. However, infrastructure 
problems in neighboring Macedonia and Albania are presently preventing delivery 
of the donated power. 

Electricity can be cut off for up to eight hours a day in most areas. Some 
households have even suffered power cuts for more than 24 hours. But a rotation 
system has been introduced to cope with the deficit. 

The long power outages during the harsh winter have forced many residents to 
resort to wood-burning stoves because central heating systems are dependent on 
electricity. But even fire wood is often not sufficiently available. 

Macedonians fear that transmitting power through their country could cause 
problems in their own power grid, even though broken lines for such 
transmissions have been repaired, said Joan Pierce, responsible for donor 
coordination and utilities in Kosovo. 

''Everybody agrees there is some risk,'' Pierce said. ''But the Macedonians tend
to take the line that any risk is not acceptable.'' 

Officials in Macedonia have said opening the disused Negotino power plant in the
west of the country would enable Greece to transit through to Kosovo. But 
financing is not yet secured and negotiations are dragging on. 

The United Nations is also looking into supplying energy from Greece through 
Albania, Pierce says, although infrastructure problems exist there as well. 

In early January, Kosovo's top international administrator Bernard Kouchner 
blamed Macedonian authorities for holding up at the border 20 tons of oil needed
to run the plants. 

Repairing the two main power plants, Kosovo A and Kosovo B in Obilic, six miles 
east of the capital Pristina, is also proving to be an uphill struggle. 

Each of the two units at the 15-year-old Kosovo B station have a capacity of 
about 200-250 megawatts, but one was shut down after a fire there earlier this 
month. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. 

Once begun, repairs will take at least four weeks, said Bill White, head of 
British company Mott MacDonald in charge of restoring the power plant.