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August 1, 2017
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Italian Snam, Albanian Albgaz sign MoU on gas market development

Italian gas infrastructure company Snam and Albania’s gas infrastructure operator Albgaz have recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop collaboration opportunities, said a message published on the Snam website July 31.

The MoU is aimed at supporting the start and development of an infrastructure system that will be managed by the Albanian company. The agreement comes in relation to the gas market development that will start with the TAP pipeline crossing Albania.

TAP is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.

The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italy’s south.

TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers).

Snam Source: Snam e Albgaz, l’operatore infrastrutturale del mercato gas in Albania, hanno firmato un accordo (Memorandum of Understanding) finalizzato a sviluppare ambiti di collaborazione a supporto dell’avvio e dello sviluppo del sistema infrastrutturale che verrà gestito dalla società albanese, in connessione alla metanizzazione prevista con l’arrivo del gasdotto TAP nel Paese.

L’accordo si inquadra nell’ambito delle attività avviate dalla business unit Snam Global Solutions con l’obiettivo di valorizzare a livello globale le esperienze, le competenze e il know-how distintivi di Snam, sviluppati nei suoi 75 anni di attività e gestione dell’intera filiera infrastrutturale del gas in Italia e in Europa.

La collaborazione è rivolta, tra l’altro, a supportare Albgaz nello sviluppo del piano di infrastrutturazione necessario ad avviare il mercato del gas e l’implementazione delle best practice caratteristiche delle attività gestite da Snam.

Albgaz è stata creata nel gennaio 2017 e ha la responsabilità della realizzazione e gestione delle infrastrutture per il mercato del gas albanese.

Snam

Snam gestisce la rete di gasdotti più estesa e accessibile d’Europa (oltre 40.000 km di lunghezza), la maggiore infrastruttura di stoccaggio (con una capacità di 19 miliardi di metri cubi) e uno dei primi terminali GNL realizzati nel Continente. Gli investimenti di Snam in Europa sono finalizzati a favorire l’integrazione delle reti energetiche europee e a promuovere il gas come pilastro di un mix energetico sostenibile. Facendo leva sulle proprie competenze distintive, la società ha lanciato recentemente Snam Global Solutions, che offre attività di studio, consulenza e project management per il mercato.

Albgaz

Albgaz è l’operatore designato per lo sviluppo e gestione del sistema infrastrutturale del gas in Albania, per tutte le attività di trasporto, distribuzione, stoccaggio e rigassificazione.

August 1, 2017
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Energy Community says it will call two tenders under WB6 electricity market

The Energy Community Secretariat has published service prior information notices regarding two upcoming tender procedures under WB6 electricity market integration initiative which are to be launched at the end of August or beginning of September 2017.

The tenders will be launched for technical assistance in the implementation of the Western Balkan six day-ahead market coupling (WB6 DA MI) Program, and for technical assistance to the implementation of cross-border electricity balancing, the statement said.

The first technical assistance will consist of providing project management support to the related governance bodies and expert support needed throughout different phases of the implementation of any individual market coupling project that will be defined in the WB6 DA MI roadmap for the implementation of regional market coupling.

The technical assistance for the implementation of cross-border electricity balancing will consist of providing expert support needed to develop a consistent and feasible roadmap for cross-border balancing cooperation in the WB6 region and its integration into the pan-European market.

The tender documents will be published on the website of the Energy Community and Wiener Zeitung, the official publication body of Austria. The launch of the tenders is intended for end August/beginning September 2017 and will follow an “open procedure” as defined by Austrian public procurement law.

The tenders are part of the project activities set out in the work program for the provision of technical assistance to Western Balkan 6 Contracting Parties under the project “Technical Assistance to Connectivity in the Western Balkans – Component 2: Regional Energy Market” funded by the European Union and implemented by the Energy Community Secretariat.

July 28, 2017
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Turkey, Romania and Croatia could face investment gaps in energy by 2040

Turkey, Romania and Croatia will have to invest more in the energy infrastructure if they want to avoid investment gaps in the sector by 2040, the new Global Infrastructure Hub report on infrastructure investment needs and gaps shows.

The GI Hub, established by the G20 to increase the flow and quality of infrastructure investment opportunities in the world, has recently launched Global Infrastructure Outlook, an analysis with Oxford Economics of infrastructure investment needs across 50 countries and 7 sectors to 2040.

The report analyses situation in three countries in the Southeast Europe, namely Turkey, Romania and Croatia.

Energy infrastructure forecasts

According to the report, Turkey needs to invest USD 242 billion (EUR 206 billion) in energy infrastructure by 2040, but it will invest only USD 194 billion (EUR 165 billion) based on the current trends. This colud lead to a gap of USD 48 billion (EUR 40.9 billion).

Romania should invest USD 62 billion (EUR 52.9 billion) in energy infrastructure while the current investment trends show that it is on the path to invest USD 57 billion (EUR 48 billion), which would lead to a gap of USD 5.8 billion (EUR 4.9 billion).

Croatia will, based on the current trends, invest USD 20 billion (EUR 17 billion) while the investments needed amount to 23 billion (EUR 19.6 billion) which means that it could face a gap of USD 2.8 billion (EUR 2.3 billion).

Water infrastructure forecasts

When it comes to the water infrastructure, Romania needs to invest USD 18 billion (EUR 15 billion) which concurs with current investment trends with a gap of USD 3,9 million (EUR 3.3 million).  The report forecasts similar trend Croatia – the current investment trend of 6.3 billion (EUR 5.3 billion) is similar to the investment needs by 2040 with a gap of USD 11 million (EUR 9.3 million).

By 2040, Turkey will need to invest USD 53 billion (EUR 45 billion) in water infrastructure but it will invest 51 billion (EUR 43 billion) based on the current tends leading to gap of USD 2,2 billion (EUR 1.8 billion).

July 28, 2017
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Final Facilitating multi-level governance for Energy Efficiency (multEE) project conference

 The GIZ Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe – Energy Efficiency (ORF-EE), in collaboration with its Facilitating multi-level governance for Energy Efficiency (multEE) project consortium partners and the Energy Community Secretariat, held the Final multEE Project Conference on June 29 in Vienna.

The conference attracted government officials from nine multEE partner countries, as well as representatives from all Energy Community (EnC) contracting parties. The event served as an interactive forum for exchange and joint learning, rooted in a participatory approach. It officially concluded the implementation of the multEE project by summarizing and reviewing all its achievements and impacts to date, while securing a platform for future cooperation.

The event was organized back-to-back with the triannual meeting of the Energy Efficiency Coordination Group of the Energy Community, which brings together EU countries and its neighbors to contribute to an integrated pan-European energy market.

Dirk Buschle, the Deputy Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, opened the conference with a welcome address in which he explained that the EnC has the ambition to follow the EU on its path to fight climate change and reiterated that the EnC is committed to achieving the transition towards clean energy at the same speed as rest of Europe. Buschle used the opportunity to emphasize that “effective horizontal and vertical governance is key to reaching this goal.”

Representative of the European Commission Energy Policy Coordination Unit of DG Energy, Leonardo Zannier, provided at the conference an overview of the Commission’s proposal on governance of the Energy Union. A special focus of his presentation were the integrated energy and climate plans, which are key elements of the governance proposal envisaged to streamline climate and energy reporting requirements. The conference participants were especially interested in the topic of reporting methodologies and related data requirements. Zannier, hence, also used the opportunity to address the proposed time schedule for submission of the first set of reports due by the end of 2018.

The multEE project is led by the GIZ ORF-EE, and implemented together with a consortium of 10 partners from 9 European countries. The consortium integrates various leading institutions working in the field of energy efficiency research, policy formulation and implementation. The multEE project aims at improving the consistency and quality of energy efficiency policy planning and implementation. Main focus is on development and implementation of innovative monitoring and verification (M&V) schemes, and improvement of coordination between different administrative levels in partner countries. The aim is further on concerted planning and projects implementation and active involvement of the civil society, the business sector and various other actors.

ORF-EE developed Monitoring & Verification tool (MVP) finds use in EU

The focus of the conference, among others, was also on the Monitoring & Verification Platform (MVP) – an IT tool for monitoring and calculating energy savings and CO2 emission reduction, which has recently attracted the interest of several EU member states.

Originally developed by the German Government financed Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe – Energy Efficiency for western Balkan countries, the MVP system was enhanced through the GIZ and EU co-financed multEE project, which is implemented as part of the EU Horizon 2020 program. The IT application is based on so called “bottom-up” methodologies determining energy savings from concrete projects without relying on energy statistics (“top-down”), which are quite insufficient in many EU and South-East European countries.

MVP and the bottom-up methodologies proved to be very effective in western Balkan countries for fulfilling the reporting obligations on the implementation of national and local Energy or Climate Action Plans and for improving the information exchange between national and local level. With the possibility to calculate savings by using reference values, it provides a cost-effective alternative to ex-post audits and can also be handled by users with limited technical knowledge.

The MVP is thus currently being implemented in Croatia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia and Slovakia and presents a good example where smart and innovative solutions, effectively addressing the issues of efficiency, coherence, transparency of monitoring and reporting of energy efficiency measures, also find use in the EU.

Benjamin Struss, GIZ ORF-EE multEE Project Coordinator, on the occasion elaborated the project’s main outputs explaining how MVP and the second pillar of the project – improving horizontal and vertical coordination schemes, can actually contribute towards the full implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive and the Winter Package “Clean Energy for all Europeans”.

This is also reflected in the conclusions from the Final multEE Conference panel discussion stating that the MVP tool offers EU member states and EnC signatories the opportunity to monitor, evaluate and refine their energy efficiency policies with a standardized, coherent and efficient tool. However, use of the MVP system in the mainstream monitoring process and its legal anchoring, and building of necessary capacities for its use, still lies ahead for most of the countries represented. Referring to this, Struss stressed “the work of multEE, although already quite comprehensive and very effective, is a good basis for implementation of further necessary efforts.”

Furthermore, it was concluded that the political momentum for improved multi-level governance for energy efficiency is currently quite positive regarding the introduction of the Winter Package at EU level.

July 28, 2017
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Two more 2 MW PV project proposals submitted to Albanian authorities

The Albanian Ministry of Energy and Industry has received two more proposals for PV projects with a capacity of up to 2 MW. The projects, which will likely compete in the country’s solar energy auction that was announced by the government in May, will add to 11 similar proposals for PV and hydropower projects of up to 2 MW that have been filed to date by the ministry.

A first project was submitted by the local company Inside Computer System Sh.P.K. The plant is planned to be located in a former industrial complex near Elbasan district, central Albania. The project’s required investment is estimated at €2.3 million. A second project under review is a 2 MW solar facility planned by Wonderland Sh.P. in Grabnja, in the Lushnjë district, also in central Albania. This project, however, is expected to be much cheaper than the first one, as its estimated cost is, according to the ministry’s document, only €1 million.

In mid-July, the ministry had accepted a similar proposal from Albanian company In Food Sh.P.K. for a project planned for the municipality of Gomsiqja, in the Shkodër County, northern Albania. On top of this, the government is currently examining another 10 similar proposals for PV and hydropower projects of up to 2 MW. These projects will be fast-tracked in order to ensure that this new installed capacity may be operational starting next year.

The country’s minister of energy Entela Cipa recently stated solar projects selected in the upcoming auction are expected to reach an installed power capacity between 30 MW and 50 MW.

Although the date of the auction is still unknown, the government is currently being assisted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in setting up the tender rules.

July 24, 2017
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Albania Builds on PENETRON for First Waste-to-Energy Plant

In June 2017, Albania inaugurated its first waste-to-energy plant in Elbasan, which will almost eliminate the community’s landfill problem. PENETRON ADMIX was used to treat concrete used for the plant’s below-ground structures.

Located on the Shkumbin River in central Albania, Elbasan is one of the country’s largest cities (population 128,000) and also one of its most polluted. The city’s new waste-to-energy plant uses trash as a fuel for generating power, just as other power plants use coal, oil, or natural gas. The burning trash heats water into steam, which drives a turbine to create electricity. Generally, this process can reduce landfill volumes by up to 90% and will extend the lifespan of Elbasan’s landfill to more than 80 years.

The €26 million ($27.9 million) energy plant will generate 2.85 MW of electricity per hour by incinerating trash; the leftover fly ash and granulate, incidentally, can be used in the production of concrete and asphalt.

“Our admixture provides the new structures at Elbasan permanent protection against concrete deterioration caused by chemical attack, freeze-thaw cycles and corrosion,” adds Theodor Mentzikofakis, General Director of PENETRON Hellas.

The project managers specified PENETRON ADMIX for about 2,000 m3 (2,600 cubic yards) of concrete used for all the new below-ground structures at the Elbasan plant, some extending down to a depth of 8 m (26 feet). Over 1,000 m (3,300 feet) of PENEBAR SW-45 waterstops permanently sealed the construction joints, and topical materials (PENECRETE MORTAR and PENETRON) were applied to eliminate any cracks that developed after curing to waterproof all the basement structures.

“The Elbasan plant is yet another large, successful project in Albania that shows the clear advantages of PENETRON integral crystalline products,” concludes Mr. Mentzikofakis. “Both the customer and our team are happy with the results!”

The PENETRON Group is a leading manufacturer of specialty construction products for concrete waterproofing, concrete repairs and floor preparation systems. The Group operates through a global network, offering support to the design and construction community through its regional offices, representatives and distribution channels.