In Velipoja, work has started on the construction of a new electrical substation, which will significantly improve the quality of electricity supply in the tourist area, but also in the entire surrounding area. The new substation will have several times more capacity than the current substation while it will also affect the reduction of losses in the network.

The Deputy Prime Minister, at the same time the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku and the director of OSSH ( Distribution System Operator), Blendian Dalipi closely inspected the works, where Dalipi disclosed details about the progress of this project.

“The building is new, the control panels, security halls, service levels, services for employees will all be of a standard as time demands. This substation will be raised another 60 centimeters from the zero level, to avoid any problems that may arise with water or floods”, said Dalipi, clarifying that this substation is of 110 kilovolt, 35 and 20 kilovolt level.

Minister Belinda Balluku said that investments are being made to improve energy infrastructure in some areas of the country, where the biggest focus is on tourist areas. Balluku emphasized that the forecasts speak of a high flow of tourists who are expected to visit Albania this year, therefore all measures have been taken to cope with the electricity supply situation.

“Given that this will be a very important season, more than 14 million visitors are expected in the Republic of Albania, of course we need to move some of these open construction sites forward even faster. Even those that started a while ago must be completed for the 2025 season. All the focus at these moments is on the tourist areas, but without excluding Tirana, which has all our attention. We are prepared to face it successfully this season”, said Balluku.

The Minister of Infrastructure and Energy further added that the new investments being made throughout the country will also affect the reduction of energy losses in the network.

“The new construction sites must proceed and must be delivered before the deadline. On the other hand, it is coping with a challenging tourist season which seems to be starting much earlier than we were used to. The season used to start in July, now it has started in April. Wherever I go to inspect the hotel units that have improvement processes at the moment, I find almost a part of them full. Meanwhile, the third and most important task is to reduce losses. The objective is that January 1, 2025 will find us, precisely because of these good investments that we are making today, with 17.93% technical loss, compared to 45% in 2013. An extraordinary change in this decade”, underlined Balluku.

In the new electrical substation of Velipoja, two transformers with three voltage levels will be installed, bringing the power of this substation to 50 megabytes.