The Government of North Macedonia announced that it proposed an extension of the state of emergency in energy sector, due to difficulties in electricity supply and current situation on energy markets, by another six months, namely until 9 June.
In early November, the Government declared a 30 -days state of emergency in the energy sector. In addition to extremely high prices of electricity on exchanges, North Macedonia has serious problem with electricity supply due to frequent unavailability of its primary source of electricity – coal-fired thermal power plant Bitola, as well as low water levels at accumulations.
Therefore, in order to cover domestic demand, state-owned power utility ESM was forced to buy electricity through tender as prices ranging from 250 to 300 euros/MWh. One of the measures proposed by the Government is resuming production at oil-fired TPP Oslomej, which has been in cold reserve for some 12 years.
The state of emergency allows authorities to take various measures, including financial intervention, to provide additional supply of electricity in case of need.
