Switzerland's Alpiq, Albanian Partner To Build Hydroelectric Units in Albania Worth Some 130 Mln Euro

Swiss energy company Alpiq said on Wednesday it will build in Albania hydroelectric plants worth a total of some 130 million euro ($166.3 million) in a consortium with local company Hydro Power Nord Albania.

The consortium has been named the preferred bidder in a government tender for the construction of hydroelectric plants with a combined capacity of 80 megawatts (MW) on the Curraj river in northern Albania - a region that is home to most of the country's hydroelectric power stations with a total capacity of 1,700 MW.

"The project concerns building a cascade of hydro power plants on Curraj river with an estimated investment value of approximately 130 million euro," Alpiq corporate communications officer Carsten Glose told SeeNews.

"The number of [hydroelectric] units in the final design shall depend on the optimised utilisation of the available hydro resources," Glose added.

Last month, Alpiq's executive director for power generation for central and eastern Europe, Allan Walmsley, told SeeNews the group is interested in investing in renewable power generation across southeastern Europe. Also in February, the company unveiled its first power generation project in the region, an 80 million euro ($102.3 million) wind park in Bulgaria.

Alpiq already has trading units in Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Bulgaria.

($ = 0.7818 euro)

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