“A wind blows, this stops current” Many businesses damaged by power cuts

With destroyed products, damaged equipment and increased costs, many businesses in Kosovo from bread ovens to large factories have been damaged by recent power cuts. Energy problems, Kosovo has for years, mainly because of the age of thermal power plants.

Still childless, baker Vlasnim Likaj realized that on the day of December 30th of last year, he would be unable to fill his oven with bread, cheese, pies, and pizza.

During late December, in the village of Davidoc in Shpes é where Likaj has been displaced from Prizren for four years to open his oven é had frequent power cuts.

Cuts sometimes lasted up to five or six hours. Even when there was electricity, Likaj says that unstable tension damaged his equipment.

Two oven fuses burned down. Another burned later because there was a very strong current, once it stopped altogether”, Likaj tells Radio Free Europe.

Likaj, his wife, and daughter work together to make the dough, let it come for a certain time, then bake it at a certain temperature and time to sell customers hot products in the morning, lunch, and dinner.

In the trade that his family has inherited for three generations, everything must be planned on time. But their plans have often failed them.

We knew there would be power problems, but not like that. It has greatly influenced the quality of production. We had the dough left, we had to throw it. In short, we've been damaged”, Likaj says.

But it's not just the “Circle” of Likaj that has faced these problems.

Lulzim Rafuna from Kosovo's Economic Oda tells the REL that almost all businesses have been damaged in one form or another by power cuts in the country.

The need for businesses to be equipped with generators makes their products less competitive in the market, Rafuna warns.

When you're not a very large producer, it increases the cost of production and immediately makes the product incompatible with other products or imported”, Rafuna says.

After him, problems are still continuing even now, when power cuts are not frequented, as in December last year, since, as it says, electricity pressure is not yet stable.

When the current stops, all the production under way is wasted. If new production lines are not very stable, problems and damages to” are caused, Rafuna adds.

Milazim Berisha, the owner of the farm and the milk station “Euroologa”, still has this problem.

At his company in Fushe Kosovo had no electricity on January 8th, when he showed it REL has caused frequent power cuts.

The last “Days have had up to 12 or 13 hours out within 24 hours. I guarantee that each device on our production lines is damaged”, Berisha says of the REL.

He says investment in modern technology equipment has returned to him as boomerang. These most modern devices are fully electronic, and they need stable energy to function.

The problem is we don't even have enough experts or masters in Kosovo to make their repairs. Much easier we worked when we had old models, which were semi-automatic”, Berisha says.

He says he has invested in about ten generators of various capacities, but that new equipment does not stand up either to switch energy from Kosovo's energy grid to generators.

Investments say he was obliged to do several years ago, the cause of lack of workers.

“These devices that are necessary even to be competitors with [the products] Europe, they are not suitable for this infrastructure in Kosovo. Only a mild wind if it blows, the current stops here”, he says.

Berisha still does not know what the value of the damage he has suffered is, but for one thing it is certain: damage has taken place.

It shows that when the supply of energy is cut down on production lines, the product in production is wasted, as the equipment immediately stops working.

The milk that has been in the bottle remains, grab it, no cover, and is destroyed much faster than when properly closed.

Rafuna shows that the Economic Oda has sent complaints to the Kosovar Power Distribution Company (KEDS) and to the Ministry of Economic Development for damages caused to businesses, but says requirements have run into deaf ears.

Lika and Berisha themselves have not tried to seek compensation in KED. They say that in their work they have to make quick solutions to limit the damage. Therefore, both have tried to find masters to fix the equipment.

“We haven't even had time to complain”, says Lika.

“Life went by complaining and we are now taking these problems” as normal, Berisha adds.

The KEDS has not responded to REL questions about how many compensation requirements have been accepted and what the value of damage caused during the period when there was more frequent power cuts.

Similarly, the Ministry of Economic Development has not indicated whether there is a plan to support businesses that have been damaged.

During the time the problems with electricity supplies have been present throughout Kosovo, the institutions have urged citizens to save it because of the network overload.

But the owners of many businesses can function without electricity.

I can tell you one thing: I, personally, if I could turn back time, I wouldn't even invest a cent. And, I am one of those who have been outside Kosovo and have returned”, says Berisha.