America : Guatemala : KEK

Kosovo Energy Corporation J.S.C (KEK J.S.C.) is the sole electricity provider in the Republic of Kosova. A vertically integrated company, KEK was legally incorporated at the end of 2005.

Over the past decade, the Company has undergone several transformations. Before the war of 1999 Kosova's power system was part of the electric infrastructure of the former Yugoslavia. Thanks to the abundance of high quality coal, Kosova always had sufficient electricity from its Thermal Power Plants (TPP) which were state of the art when they were first built. As the demand for power grew additional supply was drawn from other power plants in former Yugoslavia. Very small quantity of power was also generated from hydro power stations.

As former Yugoslavia began disintegrating in the 90s and Kosova's autonomous status was annulled, the conditions at KEK began to deteriorate without proper management and required investments in maintenance. The situation continued until the mid 1999, when the war ended and the employees were brought back to put the company back on its feet. During 1989 - 1999 period of unrest most of local experts were dismissed from their positions. With the assistance from foreign governments and organizations, KEK became fully functional and began providing power to consumers of Kosova.

KEK, a vertically integrated company, controls all aspects of the business including coal mining, generation, network and supply The Company at present includes two open-cast mines, the Mirash and Bardh mines, two power plants, "Kosova A" and "Kosova B", 51,969km of distribution network covering whole of Kosova and the supply division handling customer and the energy sale functions. KEK works closely with The Energy Regulatory Office of the Republic of Kosova to fulfil all its regulatory activities.
There are approximately 372,000 customers most of which are household consumers and the Company employs over 7.500 employees in variety of functions.

Coal Division

Underground coal mining in the Kosova Basin started in 1922 and continued until 1963 when the company changed to surface mining. At present coal excavation is done in Prishtina Basin, namely Mirash and Bardh opencast mines. The coal reserves in both of these mines amount to approximately 20 million tones and is expected to be depleted by 2010.

In an effort to meet the future coal demand for the generating units, the Mines Division has commenced on required preparations to open the new coal fields at Sibovc South-West and Sitnica Coal Sector. Sitnica Coal Sector has approximately exploitable coal reserves of 10 mil/tons while the coal reserves in Sibovc South-West Mine amount to 125 mil tons. These reserves will fulfill demands for coal until 2024 year when the operating life of existing generation units will end.

The annual coal production at the present time is more than seven million tons.

Generation Division

Generation Division includes power plant "Kosova A", "Kosova B" and Chemical Separations, that are situated in Obiliq region, approximately 8 km outside of Prishtina, the capital city of the Republic of Kosova.

Power plant "Kosova A" has five units, A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5. Unit A1 was installed in 1962 with an installed capacity of 65MW; A2 in 1965 with an installed capacity of 125MW; A3 in 1970 with an installed capacity of 200MW; A4 in 1971 with an installed capacity of 200MW and A5 in 1975 with an installed capacity of 210MW. Units A3, A4 and A5 are operational and combined generate on the average 400MW.

Unit A1 can be operational but the turbine has not undergone proper maintenance in 18 years and thus is considered unsafe for operation. Unit A2 has not been in operation due to faulty transformer.

Power plant "Kosova B" consists of two units known as B1 and B2. Unit B1 was installed in 1983 with an installed capacity of 340MW, while B2 was installed in 1984 again with the capacity of 340MW. The combined energy generation from these units amounts to approximately 4500GWh annually.

Network Division

The network covers whole of Republic of Kosova and is divided into seven districts. It is responsible for maintaining all technical equipment such as 110kV transformers and lines, 0.4 kV lines leading to households, reading meters, tracking energy balances, disconnections, and loses (technical and commercial) among other related activities.

Distribution Division is responsible for 776.8km of 35kV lines, 331.7km of 20kV lines, 12873.3km of 10kV lines and 37988.9km of 0.4kV lines. It is also responsible for one 220/35/20 kV substation, twenty-three 110/x kV substations, fifty 35/10 kV substations, and four thousand eight hundred and eighty seven (4887) 10(20)/0.4 kV substations.

Supply Division

The Supply Division is responsible for all the commercial activities including collection and customer service. The division collects monthly bills from almost 372,000 customers from various consumer categories. It also maintains the costumer care services, operates 47 cash offices all over the country and offers banking services through Kosova’s banking system, KOS-Giro.

Mission

KEK J.S.C, an ethical company, will provide secure, reliable and reasonably priced services while being an environmentally-responsive, transparent and commercially orientated organization, which is responsive to customer needs.

Vision

KEK J.S.C will be a successful corporation that will attract private investments upon unbundling of Mines, Generation, Network and Supply units.

Unbundling and Privatization

KEK J.S.C. Unbundling

The sole Shareholder of KEK J.S.C., the Government of Republic of Kosovo, has decided for KEK to undergo the process of unbundling. This process will result in creation of two companies out of KEK J.S.C., i.e. a company that will produce coal and electricity (to be known as KEK J.S.C.) and a new company for distribution and sale of electricity (to be known as KEDCS J.S.C.).

Shareholder’s decision is based upon European Commission’s Directives 2003/55/EC and 2003/54/EC that envisage the common rules for internal markets for natural gas and electricity. The process of unbundling will be performed in complete accordance with the Law for Public Utilities of the Republic of Kosovo. Republic of Kosovo has agreed to implement the above-mentioned Directives by signing the Athens Treaty on reforming the electricity market of the South-Eastern Europe.

Privatization of the new Kosovo Electricity Distribution and Sales Company (KEDCS)

Following the process of unbundling of KEK J.S.C., the Shareholder of the new company (KEDCS) has decided to privatize the same.

Below is provided a table underlining the division between the two companies:

For a better understanding of the above-mentioned core Divisions, two of them belonging to KEK J.S.C. and two other to KEDCS J.S.C. below are short reviews on each of them.

Address:       Rr. “Nëna Terezë”, nr. 36
                     10000 Prishtina, Kosova
                     T + 381 38 240 245 ex. 297
                     F + 381 38 224 398
                     komunikime@kek-energy.com
                     www.kek-energy.com

Size: Over 7500 employees
Owner: MFE- Government of Kosova 
Chief Executive Officer: Arben Gjukaj, acting Managing Director