Athens, 13 April 2023 (MIA) – Photovoltaics are changing the price of electricity, which is no longer the highest during the day, this should be used by ESM and EVN Home, if there is a need, they should buy electricity when it is drastically cheaper and save coal for winter, Marko Bislimoski, President of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) told MIA.

As President of the Energy Community Regulatory Board (ECRB), Bislimoski is participating in a two-day meeting of the ECRB in Athens, and in conversation with MIA’s Athens correspondent, he spoke about when we could discuss the implementation of a cheap tariff for electricity and revealed that 170 licenses for new photovoltaic power plants have been issued in only three months in North Macedonia, compared to the 267 licenses issued throughout all of 2022.

Concerning the exchange price of electricity, Bislimoski said it is no longer the highest during the day, instead it is far lower than at 7 or 8pm, and it is even lower after midnight because there are drastic changes in the exchange prices and “we have a so-called duck curve, which is characteristic for countries that have an increased production of electricity from solar power.”

“There are days when the price of electricity during the day is EUR 1.68 per MWh, there are days when it was EUR 5 or 6. On a usual day it is somewhere around EUR 60 per MWh and this is why when we are discussing the possibility of introducing a cheap tariff we look to send a signal to ESM and EVN Home, if there is a need, to buy electricity when it is drastically cheaper, so that we can keep the water in our hydropower plants because the preparations for a new heating season must begin immediately after the current one ends,” said Bislimoski, adding that the prices in summer will be around EUR 20 to 30 per MWh and “we absolutely must make use of this, to be ready and not to wait, so that we won’t need to change the prices of electricity.”

The ERC President said that they are assessing the possibility of introducing a cheap tariff of electricity, but only if everyone abides by the concept of buying electricity when it is the cheapest.

On the other hand, on whether the price of electricity could be increased, he said that he personally is not currently in favor of this idea because, he said, “there are many opportunities that we must make use of.”

In conversation with MIA’s Athens correspondent, Bislimoski noted that despite the forecasts of a difficult winter, the increased domestic production of electricity as well as the mild winter helped avoid any issues.

“In the past six-seven months we successfully dealt with the crisis, there was no increase in the price of electricity on the regulated market, on the contrary, the price for small consumers was reduced by 20 percent as of January 1, 2023, and there were no restrictions. This is due to the increased domestic production of electricity, but we also had a mild winter, and of course that helped us. In the first three months of the year, we met the total electricity needs of the country with around 88.5 percent of electricity secured through domestic production, while the imports for overall electricity needs, not only for the regulated market, stands at 11.5 percent, and I think we haven’t had these kinds of figures in the past 20 years,” said Bislimoski.

According to Bislimoski, who chairs the ECRB meeting in Athens, which began on Wednesday, the main topic of the meeting is tackling the energy crisis and exchanging experiences.

Based on the experiences with the energy crisis, the regulators will adopt conclusions and draft a study which “will serve as a guide on how to continue to manage the energy crises, which will evidently continue.”

“The measures adopted by the countries vary depending on whether they imported or exported electricity, but what they all have in common is that there was a serious increase in the price of electricity, and an even greater increase in the price of gas and these are the trends that occurred in 2021 and 2022. At the beginning of 2023 we have a more relaxed situation with reduced prices of electricity and gas, and we hope that these trends will continue so that we can have a far more stable situation,” said Bislimoski.

In December 2019, the ERC President was unanimously elected as President of the ECRB and won a second two-year mandate in November 2021.

The Energy Community’s meetings are traditionally held in Athens. Apart from North Macedonia, the Community consists of Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, and Albania.

The previous meeting in Athens was held towards the end of December 2022.

Sanja Ristovska