The exchange that will bring energy cheaper

On March 10, 2023, the regional conference "Energy challenges towards transition and sustainable development" was held in Tirana. Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku announced that at the end of March 2023, the Albanian energy exchange ALPEX will be opened. The Albanian energy exchange has long been expected by the country's manufacturing businesses and foreign energy investors in the country. It would greatly help the productive enterprises of Albania, to find electricity at a cheaper price in the Stock Exchange of Albania. It would significantly reduce their costs and the time they need to find energy sellers outside the country's borders. On the other hand, the Albanian Stock Exchange ALPEX will create the conditions for a competitive market, allowing the establishment of fair prices and, certainly cheaper than the prices that Albanian producers find today in the markets beyond Albania. This exchange will produce more transparency of electricity sales contracts for the country's users. It will enable an energy market oriented towards investments and the growth of energy production capacities in the country, for the immediate benefit of Albanian citizens-consumers of energy, as well as businesses, primarily those producing in Albania. ALPEX will offer flexibility for the integration of the Albanian electricity market and the unification of the day-ahead market and the intraday market. As is known, the price of electricity sold within a day varies a lot and the exchange allows you to buy it earlier, reducing the purchase costs. The Albanian Stock Exchange will create the conditions for the transparent and efficient transfer of funds flows and accounts of buyers and sellers in the Stock Exchange, using the Stock Exchange as a guarantor for all actions in the organized Albanian electricity market. ALPEX will create a structure within which competition will take place in both the wholesale and retail markets, promoting and ensuring rapid supplier change. Of course, the energy exchange, as a first experience, has many questions and challenges ahead of it. There is a sister, the Tirana Stock Exchange, which is still not rising to the level of a real stock exchange. In other words, there is a not very good tradition in the operation of a stock exchange in Albania. And it will face many challenges. First, how will this ALPEX electricity exchange be managed? Will it have its own building? Will there be a group of expert-brokers as staff? Will it be 100 percent state-owned, or co-ownership with private expert companies in the field of managing an energy exchange? Will the big Albanian companies trust ALPEX and list in it? Despite these uncertainties and challenges, the Albanian stock market will undoubtedly improve the image of Albania, as a well-regulated and organized electricity market, creating opportunities for the Albanian Electricity Corporation (KESH) to find more suitable and better partners. effectively, for the imports that Albania will be obliged to provide as a state, for different periods of the year, but also for the exports of KESH, which, with the improved operation of the Drin cascade and with the energy reserves created in Lake Fierza from the recent rains, we wish everyone to be important for our economy. ALPEX will encourage foreign investors in energy production capacity here in our country, not only from hydropower plants, but also from other green energy sources, such as photovoltaics and wind farms. So far, the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure is working to complete contracts for 55 projects with foreign investors in the field of energy, with a possible capital injection of 1.7 billion euros. The energy exchange in Tirana will galvanize the security of foreign investors for a professional energy market and will constitute one more guarantee for them, in the beneficial use for them and for the country,