The energy balance for the year 2022 showed that electricity production in Albania decreased compared to the previous year, and a double-digit increase in imports was recorded.
In 2022, the available electricity on the Albanian market was reduced by 5.8 percent. Net domestic electricity generation reached 7,003 GWh, compared to 8,963 GWh in 2021, a 21.9 percent decline. The share of public hydropower plants in the total production was 55.1 percent, the share of private and concession hydropower plants 44.2 percent and other producers (photovoltaic power plants) 0.7 percent of the net domestic electricity production.
Gross import of electricity reached 3,044 GWh, compared to 2,253 GWh a year ago, which is an increase of 35.1 percent. The gross export of electricity decreased on an annual basis from 2,800 GWh to 2,123 GWh, which represents a drop of 24.2 percent, according to INSTAT.
The data show that public hydropower plants produced a total of 3,859 GWh in 2022, which is 27.8 percent less compared to 5,344 GWh in 2021. In the same period, private and concession hydroelectric plants produced 3,093 GWh, compared to 3,578 GWh a year ago, representing a 13.6 percent drop in electricity production.
The difference between export and gross import of electricity in 2022 reached a negative value of 921 GWh, while in 2021 it was plus 548 GWh.
On the other hand, network losses decreased by 7.1 percent, to 1,658 GW. Transmission losses were reduced by 12.3 percent and their share in total network losses was 12.1 percent. Losses in distribution have a larger share, of about 87.9 percent in total losses and were reduced by 6.4 percent compared to 2021.
The energy balance shows that electricity consumption in 2022 fell to 6,266 GWh, compared to 6,630 GWh in 2021.
The consumption of electricity in households decreased by 0.5 percent, to 3,075 GWh, while the consumption of other consumers decreased by 9.9 percent, to 3,191 GWh (compared to 3,540 GWh in 2021).
In the last quarter of last year, a more visible decrease in demand was recorded, which is mainly related to the setting of the consumption threshold for households of 800 kWh.
