Macedonian state electricity producer AD ESM has not received payments from the state budget for more than a month to cover losses caused by the energy crisis and must seek new sources to finance the difference between the purchase price of electricity and the regulated selling price for households.
One of the recent decisions envisions one of the liquid state-owned joint stock companies granting a loan to state-owned power plants after the government’s green light. The ESM confirmed that the amount approved by the RSM State Lottery was MKD 90 million (EUR 1.46 million).
Vasko Kovacevski, CEO of AD ESM, said last week that the company would need another 100m euros by the end of the year to overcome the energy crisis. The head of the state power plants also announced borrowing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for 50 to 100 million euros.
The EBRD provides the possibility of credit borrowing with interest rates below 1% and a repayment period of six years with a grace period of six months. It is about the amount of 50 to 100 million euros to cover the difference between the production and sales price, announced Kovacevski.
Also in February, the government in Skopje recommended the transmission system operator MEPSO to apply for a loan from commercial banks to maintain liquidity.
A few days later, however, the government decided to pay 11 million euros to MEPSO through the Power Plant of Northern Macedonia, after receiving the answer that obtaining a loan from commercial banks is not possible due to current indebtedness with a foreign lender.
In February alone, the crisis forced the government to pay 58m euros to state-owned power plants. When everything is added up, in 2022, in less than two months, 80 million euros were spent from the budget for this purpose.
If we add to this the payments from 2021 after the declaration of the energy crisis, the total amount of support reaches 166 million euros.
Source: faktor.mk
