Der Österreichische Energie Konzern EVN steht vor dem Rauswurf in Mazedonien mit seinem Betrugs Investment

21.1.2009 by Atahualpa.

 Die EVN wird mit ihrem Betrugs Geschäft in Mazedonien scheitern!

Wo die EVN-Austria auftaucht, kommt man wie andere Österreichischen Firmen schnell mal an Lizenzen, aber die EVN ist einfach zu unfähig, die Elektrizitäts Sicherheit in Mazedonien zu gewährleisten, und die Strom Versorgung sicher zustellen. Vor allem werden die zugesagten Investitionen und Anschlüße nicht getätigt und gewährleistet.

Dispute between Macedonian government and EVN worsens

21/01/2009

 

siehe auch: EVN May Lose Macedonia License - Official

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has expressed disappointment with the performance of the Austrian firm that runs his country’s electricity monopoly. Regulators might yank its operating licence.

By Goran Trajkov for Southeast European Times in Skopje – 21/01/09

EVN runs Macedonia’s electricity sector. [Tomislav Georgiev]

The gap between the Macedonian government and EVN — the main hub for distribution of electricity in Macedonia — is widening. Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has accused the Austrian firm, which bought the Balkan country’s national electricity monopoly in 2006, of providing poor service to customers.

“EVN Macedonia is the most problematic foreign investor we have,” Gruevski said in early January. The firm is setting a “very bad example” for other foreign investors, he added.

Macedonian households have been suffering frequent cutoffs of electricity. Service took an especially dramatic turn for the worse after October 1st 2008, with increasingly common outages lasting anywhere from a few hours to a day or two. The last straw for many Macedonians was widespread blackouts over the New Year’s holidays.

EVN is either intentionally denying service or failing to invest enough in the power grid, Gruevski said. He also faulted the monopoly for failing to connect sports arenas — a construction priority for the government — to electrical service.

“We have been unable to open arenas in Brvenica and Demir Hisar for six months now because EVN refuses to connect them. … [Denial of service to completed stadiums] is not so tragic, but what is truly tragic is that the [builders of] many private enterprises, factories and other projects under construction have been begging for months to be connected,” Gruevski said.

EVN defends its record. The chairman of its Macedonian managing board, George Waldner, says the company is a good corporate citizen in Macedonia, one of the few international corporations willing to invest during a global economic crisis. In his company’s defence, he said it had spent 85m euros on improving the country’s distribution network.

Company spokeswoman Lence Karpuzovska attributed the recent spate of blackouts to a surge in demand over the holidays.

The independent regulatory commission says it will investigate accusations against EVN and issue a report. EVN will have to justify every instance of loss of service and to explain the power outages that affected some entire villages and neighbourhoods. The penalty for an “unjustified” blackout is 5,000 euros.

Regulatory commission head Slave Ivanovski warned EVN might even lose its licence to operate in Macedonia, with the government then awarding the contract to another firm.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com

 

Über die üblichen Bestechungs Orgien der West Konzerne wie hier die Österreichsiche EVN, wurden die E-WErke und Netze 2006 privatisiert und verkauft. Ein Investment Schutz Abkommen wurde unterzeichnet.

Und jetzt will Mazedoniien diese wichtigen Strom Netze zurück, denn der Wert ist zigfach höher, als die Östereicher dafür bezahlten.

Macedonia Wants Power Company Back

26 11 2007 Skopje _ The Austrian power company, EVN, that bought Macedonia’s electricity utility, ESM, last year, has said it has no plans to sell its acquisition, after the government offered to buy it back.

“ESM is not for sale”, was the only comment that the spokesman of EVN-ESM, Lence Karpuzovska, had to say to Balkan Insight on Monday, regarding last week’s controversial government proposal to repurchase the company that deals with distributing electricity through the national grid.

On Friday government spokesman Ivica Bocevski told media that the government would be interested in buying ESM, if the Austrians decided to sell it.

He explained that if that were to happen, the administration would not resell the company.

The government proposal has come at a time of tension between the Macedonian authorities and EVN over a new energy law that envisages energy market liberalization starting from 2008.

According to the draft law, EVN will have to cover part of the expenses incurred due to loss of energy in the system, by buying electricity on the open market, paying prices that are much higher than the prearranged tariff the company now pays to the state-owned power plants.

According to Bocevski, the government’s idea of a buy-back would not contravene its energy policy that promotes foreign investments in this sector. He said it would not discourage future investors, as it was legitimate for a state, after selling, “to change its mind, and ask to buy back a company”.

Earlier this month, the government accused EVN of failing to invest the agreed €40 million in infrastructure in 2007, saying that if the company had carried out the investment as foreseen in the contract, it would have significantly cut electricity losses due to obsolete equipment.

EVN disagreed saying that the majority of their loss was from theft, as whole areas in Macedonia traditionally refuse to pay for their electricity, and chase away EVN’s workers when they attempt to cut off the power supply.

EVN also said the new law could raise prices next year.

After previously splitting the former state owned Electricity Company into three separate companies for power generation, power transfer-distribution, and distribution-sale to consumers, the former government led by the Social Democrats, sold the second of these, the national electricity grid, to the Austrians in October 2006 for €225 million.

The party that leads the current center-right government, VMRO-DPMNE, then in opposition, denounced the way the privatization of ESM was being carried out.

Macedonia and Austria signed a foreign investment protection agreement in 2006.

http://www.birn.eu.com/en/114/15/6561/

Albania Govt. Approves €950 M Hydro Deal

Tirana | 22 January 2009 |

Hydro plant’s to boost GDP

Albania’s government approved on Wednesday a €950 million deal with Austrian utility EVN and the Norwegian renewable energy group Statkraft to build three hydro-electric power plants in Albania. The contract would need to be ratified by parliament to become effective.

The three plants on the river Devoll, which flows into the Adriatic south of the capital Tirana, would produce a combined 340 megawatts of power and generate 1,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually.

Albania’s power network fell into disrepair in the 1980s under the former communist regime and in the first years of transition to democracy in the early 1990s. Increased demands as the economy grew rapidly in the last 15 years mean frequent and lasting blackouts and a reliance on petrol generators in homes and businesses across the country.

Ragnvald Naero, Executive Vice President of Statkraft, said in a statement that the project would increase hydro power production in Albania by 20 percent, as well as create jobs and stimulate economic development.

The planned project in Devoll is the first concrete result of an agreement signed by the government of Lower Austria, the Republic of Albania and EVN in early 2007.

International organizations that monitor the Albanian economy, including the IMF and the World Bank, have expressed concern that the energy crisis could have an adverse effect on the country’s robust economic growth, which has been averaging close to 6.0 percent annually in recent years.

According to the Ministry of Economy the planned hydro power plant projects in southern Albania will increase the country’s gross domestic product by two percentage points.

“Our economy will benefit with a two percent GDP rise from the Devolli hydro power plant projects, while the investment will open 7500 new jobs, “said Minster Genc Ruli in late December. “This project is the solution for our long-running electricity crisis.”

He added the plants will be operational in between seven to ten years, and Albania would earn as much as one billion euro in tax and concessionary tariffs.

(Reporting by Besar Likmeta)

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