Skopje, 17 February 2023 (MIA) – Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi and President of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) agreed at a meeting Friday to establish a Working Group to finalize the legislation on the storage of electricity produced by renewable energy sources (RES) in battery systems and to accelerate the process in order to create predictability for all future investors.

The meeting was also attended by representatives from EVN and MEPSO, as well as members of the Macedonian Energy Association (MEA) which is responsible for connecting RES to the grid.

Installing batteries at solar power plants will increase the cost of investment by 10 to 20 percent, but it will allow the investors to sell electricity when the supply is lower than the demand.

“We decided to establish a working group which will include representatives from MEA and various institutions, and will work on the legislation in the area of storing electricity as an additional necessity of the investors and the country in the area of RES,” said Bekteshi after the meeting, adding that they will determine a method to make procedures simpler and investments more profitable.

In doing so, he said, they will take the capacity of the country’s distribution and transmission system to accept the production of electricity from RES into account.

The Minister noted that according to the data from EVN and MEPSO, there is a large number of investments in RES in the country. At the same time, he urged all potential investors to carefully follow the procedures to avoid a situation in which the production exceeds the country’s needs.

MEA President Kocho Angjushev said all photovoltaics produce electricity at the same time, and 80 percent of the electricity produced during the year is in the period from April to September and from 9:00am to 5:00pm.

“So, we mustn’t allow for great surpluses of thousands of megawatts to occur during this period. The only solution is for the electricity to be stored in battery systems. They should be covered by our legislation. And this is the procedure we initiated at the meeting today,” said Angjushev.

ERC President Bislimoski said it is possible that there be surpluses of electricity during the summer period, when the production of electricity from photovoltaics peaks.

“In order to use that energy rationally it is necessary for everyone who has photovoltaics to install a battery system as well. This is the best solution for storing energy and then selling it on the market during the night, when the production is lower,” said Bislimoski. ad/nn/