All of Albania experienced a blackout Tuesday because of a defective transmission line. The defective line was importing power from neighboring Macedonia, the energy minister said.

According to an Associated Press report, the blackout began at 4 p.m. Energy Minister Genc Ruli said on public television TVSH that officials were working to restore electricity first to Tirana, the country's capital.

Post-communist Albania has suffered regular reliability problems because of poor management, an outdated distribution system and lack of money, the AP reported.

The AP report also stated that Albania has suffered serious problems with electricity supply this month due to difficulties in importing and problems with domestic production. Domestic power production is based on hydropower stations that have suffered from lack of rain for more than a month.

Albania imports 5 million to 6 million kwH per day and produces another 5 million to 6 million -- a level that has resulted in shutdowns of up to 15 hours daily.