MP Enno Bozdo, in a statement, has raised strong accusations against the government and the Albanian Electric Power Corporation (KESH), claiming that the company "Voltalia" has been illegally favored in the Karavasta photovoltaic park project, in violation of the tender conditions and the law on the energy sector.

According to the statement, the competition held in May 2020 envisaged that the state would purchase only 50% of the energy produced by the plant, while the rest would be sold by the company on the free market. However, the opposition claims that in 2022 KESH signed a new agreement with “Voltalia”, taking over the purchase of the entire production of the photovoltaic park.

Bozdo also states that this agreement constitutes a violation of the law, as the energy should have been purchased according to competitive procedures and from the Free Market Supplier (FTL), not from KESH.

The statement also claims that, in addition to the price stipulated in the contract for half of the production, the rest of the energy was purchased at a price much higher than the market price, causing financial damage to KESH and the state budget. The opposition estimates that during 2024 alone, the damage amounts to around 6.5 million euros, while over the entire contract period it could reach up to 100 million euros.

According to the complaint, the agreement was also amended by extending the guaranteed energy purchase period by 27 months, without conducting a new competitive procedure.

The opposition emphasizes that it has officially requested information from the Ministry of Energy and KESH on this issue, but claims that it has not yet received a response, even though the legal deadline has passed.
At the end of the statement, Bozdo warns that he will pursue this issue to the end, describing it as another affair with serious financial consequences for Albanian taxpayers.

Full statement:

"Today's statement is inspired by the investigative show "Plug", which highlighted another very problematic affair in the energy sector, that of the economic favoritism of the company "Voltalia", in violation of the competition conditions, of the law of the electricity sector, in direct violation of competition, equality and transparency of the spending of public money of Albanian taxpayers!

It all started five years ago. Everyone remembers the broadcast of the public competition for the construction and operation of the Photovoltaic Park in Karavasta. On May 27, 2020, this competition, in the presence of the Prime Minister, was won by the company "Voltalia".

The initial conditions of the competition, and consequently the contract subsequently signed with the company “Voltalia”, required it to install a photovoltaic plant with a capacity of 140 MW. These conditions clearly stipulated that the state would purchase only 50% of the energy (70 MW) at the promised price of 24.89 Euro/MWh, while the other half had to be sold by the company on the free market. At that time, the government considered “Voltalia’s” offer an extraordinary success, not only because the price of 24.89 Euro/MWh was a competitive price, but also because, according to the government itself, the average purchase price in the last 3 years on the free market had been 55 Euro/MWh, while the price offered by “Voltalia” was less than half of the price that the market offered.

Up to this point, nothing special to note. But this apparent success would soon take the form of a fraud. Because this contract, and with it the conditions of the competition, were never respected.

So, the terms of the tender were not respected, but also the law on the electricity sector. This is because the Albanian Electric Power Corporation, the public company that is funded by our taxes and operates in the name of the public interest, with the blessing of the Ministry of Energy, on July 15, 2022, entered into another agreement with "Voltalia", in clear violation of the terms where 5 companies had competed and where "Voltalia" had been declared the winner.

Thus, KESH surprisingly offered to purchase at regulated prices the entire amount of energy produced by the photovoltaic park, i.e. 140 MW.

First, KESH has seriously violated the law, because it is a legal obligation that, as defined textually:

“Suppliers charged with the obligation of universal supply service, as a public service obligation, purchase electricity according to transparent, non-discriminatory procedures, based on market prices, regardless of whether the purchase is made in the bilateral or organized market.”

Secondly, because the legal obligation is that this energy is purchased by FTL (Free Market Supplier) and not KESH, because that is how the law defines it. But Maliqi thinks differently, because the law applies to everyone else, but not to “Voltalia”. In fact, out of 53 solar energy production companies in Albania today, “Voltalia” is the only company that is selected by KESH and its entire production is purchased, and at prices beyond market logic. Of the other 52 companies, 42 of them have a contract with FTL, while the other 9 sell on the open market;

Thirdly, because if we calculate that half of the energy production was purchased at a price of 24,89 euros/MWh, then it turns out that KESH purchased the other half of the production at approximately 106 euros/MWh, a figure that is very high compared to the market. If this difference were calculated over the entire duration of the concession, approximately 17 years, under normal market conditions, the amount lost by Albanian taxpayers is very large, in the order of 100 million euros. For the year 2024 alone, precisely because of this fact, KESH has suffered a loss of approximately 6.5 million euros!

So here we have the violation of the law with both feet and the day for the sun, the distortion of the market, the elimination of competition, through the awarding of a very favorable price to "Voltalia" without any competition or competitive procedure.

And KESH has clearly done all this to favor "Voltalia" and those behind it, and above all with our money. So government favors and government credits, but with Albanian money!

But there is more: in secret and without any new competition procedure, as required by law, the agreement, which was amended on July 15, 2022, added another 27 months of guaranteed purchase beyond the initial 15-year term, a gift worth millions of euros in favor of the concessionaire.

Finally, it should not be forgotten that in the auction for the construction and operation of the Karavasta photovoltaic park, which was won by “Voltalia”, 4 other companies also participated in the competition, among which two were German consortiums. These companies were disqualified because they submitted uncompetitive bids.

But in fact, if these companies had known that the competition rules would change shortly, they certainly could have won the competition. These companies today have every right to sue the Albanian government in Brussels for violating the competition rules in the competition and receive the compensation they are entitled to!

For the above reasons, a month ago I sent a request for information, according to the relevant law on the status of a deputy, to the Minister of Energy and the Public Company KESH. Although the legal obligation is to return a response within two weeks and a month has already passed, I still have no response on this very worrying issue.

Just as I have no answer for the contracts of Tigres 1 and 3, which KESH keeps in the safe, in violation of the law, because it calls them trade secrets. The Tigres affair has also cost Albanians around 90 million euros so far, without even working a day and with the prospect that, if they do work one day, they will pollute Vlora with soot!

The "Voltalia" affair is almost identical to that of the Tigers. The only difference is that it is talked about much less. Thanking the professional and courageous journalists of "Plug", we remain awaiting official responses from the Ministry and the Albanian Electric Power Corporation. In all cases, the opposition MPs will follow this affair to the end, just as they did with dozens and dozens of other corrupt affairs", declared Bozdo.