WORLDWIDE MARKET RESEARCH REPORT - CISE

EC/IST FP6 Project No 026920
Work Package: 6
Type of document: Report
Date: 20.12.2007
File name: OP_WP6_D37_V1.0.doc Version: 1.0
Title: Worldwide Market Research Report 182 / 356
As infrastructure crumbles, replacement costs soar. The Albanian Daily News reported that
in 2002, Albania's electricity self-sufficiency decreased from 66% to 46%. Power cuts of up
to 18 hours a day are not rare. The same applies to Kosovo, where electric storms
demolished the local generation plant and to Montenegro.
The dependence of many countries in transition on decrepit and antiquated nuclear power
plants causes friction with the European Union. Austria and the Czech Republic have
clashed over the much-disputed Temelin facility. Croatia and Slovenia are locked in a bitter
dispute over their shared ownership of the Krsko nuclear plant. Lithuania derives 78% of its
power the atomic way. Slovakia gets 53% of its electricity from its reactors, Ukraine 46%,
Bulgaria (in the throes of a controversial plan to modernize its nuclear works in Kozloduy)
42%, Hungary and Slovenia 39%.
Nor can pure market mechanisms solve the problem. In 2001, hundreds of Romas, having
been cut off the grid for unpaid bills, demonstrated in Plovdiv and in Lom, Bulgaria. Remote
and rural areas are poorly catered to even by state-owned utilities, let alone by privatized
ones. On the same year, the Romanian government restructured Electrica, an electricity
utility, but wisely retained ownership of the long-distance distribution network.
Bulgaria is emerging as an energy hub. The cabinet is drafting a bill which calls for far-
reaching liberalization. Subsidies for both electricity and heating have be phased out by
2006.
Bulgaria is slated to establish a regional energy distribution coordination centre under the
auspices of the Stability Pact. Bulgaria covers 40-50% of southeast Europe's entire
electricity deficit every winter. It also exports electricity to Turkey and even to Romania. Italy
and Greece are negotiating a transit agreement which will permit the former to import
Bulgarian electricity through the latter's territory. Bulgaria is not the only exporter. Romania,
Croatia and even Bosnia sell power.
Aware of this, the World Bank has recently increased the amount of money allocated to
energy projects. In Albania alone, it has earmarked $16 million to reconstruct three
hydropower plants and another $1 million to install electricity meters in Shkoder, in the north.
Even the pariah Republika Srpska, the Serb part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, stands to get $90
million to construct an electricity grid.