Skopje, 10 February 2023 (MIA) – Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi said the country may face a surplus of power from renewable energy sources between May and October 2023.

“Some days from May to September, consumption does not exceed 600 MW statewide, and we will likely achieve 400 MW in May alone,” Bekteshi told a press conference Friday.

He said that photovoltaic power plants with an installed power of over 400 MWh were in the final stages of construction after they had secured construction permits. He pointed out that this was a record number of photovoltaic power plants ever built in the country.

The economy minister said the interest in constructing photovoltaic plants has increased given that the conditions and procedures to obtain a permit had become easier.

"There is a connection of 81.8 MWh of power from solar sources alone in the distribution network, and capacities of 386.1 MWh are under construction or pending construction.

"In accordance with the Energy Development Strategy, our distribution network can receive around 1500 MWh, which means that in under 4 years, we will have 700 MW of new capacities, most of them from photovoltaic power plants that will be connected to the network.

"Over 28% of these are in the free market, which means that the Energy Regulatory Commission will have no influence on the price," Bekteshi said.

He also announced a new plan on distributing investments which would favor investments into renewable energy sources. He said it would be adopted in 2 weeks.

“The goal is for potential investors to be sure they can join the grid so that there are no additional issues with funding investments from the start of the procedure, instead of the final stages,” Bekteshi said. dk/mr/