Skopje, 6 April 2023 (MIA) – The Government fulfilled its promise and no one was left to deal with the crisis alone. We provided electricity and heating. The price of electricity for households did not increase. The price of electricity for small consumers, for 72.000 businesses that employ 98 percent of workers in the country, dropped by 20 percent, contrary to all forecasts. This is all a result of ESM’s increased production of electricity, said Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski at a press conference Thursday.

The PM noted that the Government also secured cheap electricity for the producers of basic food products, schools and for the stabilization of electricity supply for the essential functions of the state, above all for the health system.

“Inflation has been dropping since October because of this and other measures concerning prices. We adopted the largest set of anti-crisis measures in the region, of over EUR 760 million, for the most vulnerable categories of citizens and in order to maintain the liquidity of businesses,” said Kovachevski.

The PM listed, according to him, several facts concerning the manner in which the Government tackled the largest energy crisis that the world has seen since the Second World War.

“In 2022, and during the preparations for the 2022/2023 heating seasons, apart from dealing with the challenge of managing two crises, we also faced various speculations, dark scenarios and fake news coming from certain structures in society and above all political parties, which, fortunately, proved false and inaccurate. On the contrary, our citizens had a secure and stable supply of electricity and heating during the whole heating season,” said the PM.

Kovachevski said that the domestic production of electricity has been increased and ESM has provided 100 percent of the country’s supply of electricity, despite being legally obliged to provide 60 percent.

“At the same time, we took over the supply of heating energy in Skopje, which is the responsibility of the City of Skopje. Skopje is not managed by the Government, or the parties from the ruling coalition, on the contrary, it is ruled by our political opponents and their Mayor who won at the last local elections. They gave up on their responsibility, and we took it over for the good of the citizens,” stressed Kovachevski.

In parallel, added the PM, the Government is working to develop the green transition, because energy independence is the country’s priority.

“Our country is already a regional leader when it comes to energy transition, with great potential to become a green energy hub. The interest in investments in renewable energy sources is constantly growing. Just in the period from January 1 to February 28 in 2022, new solar power plants with a total capacity of 181.2 megawatts, which can satisfy the needs of 72.500 households, were constructed and put into use. In the first two months of 2023, 88 new solar power plants have been constructed in the country with a production capacity of 29 megawatts,” said PM Kovachevski.

Photo: MIA Archive