North Macedonia is set to introduce a new electricity supply model for public institutions to help lower their energy costs, according to Marko Bislimoski, President of the country’s energy regulatory authority, RKE.
Bislimoski proposed that non-profit institutions, such as schools, kindergartens, and hospitals, be grouped together for joint electricity procurement. By combining their purchasing power, he explained, these institutions could reduce supplier profit margins and ultimately lower their electricity costs.
The state-owned power utility, ESM, could potentially meet the full electricity demand for these institutions, although additional providers might also be involved. Currently, public institutions secure their electricity through numerous public tenders, with contracts often carrying margins between 25% and 30%. Bislimoski noted that these high margins are partly due to the poor financial liquidity of these institutions, which sometimes leads to failed tenders and a reliance on the supplier of last resort, further increasing costs.
ESM currently sells electricity to the universal supplier at a price of 62 euros/MWh, but this pricing model causes financial losses for the company. Bislimoski emphasized the need to assess how much electricity ESM can reliably supply to public institutions. If ESM cannot meet the demand, a public tender will be launched to involve other suppliers, with the aim of securing electricity at significantly lower margins.
With the liberalization of the electricity market, public institutions, including schools and hospitals, are now required to purchase electricity directly from the open market, replacing the previous model where they received it through the universal supplier.
