The Government of Macedonia is committed to improving its policy framework to make way for a competitive and attractive electric power generation and distribution sector
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Macedonia has signed the Energy Community Treaty (ECT), which commits the signatories to implement the relevant parts of the EU acquis communautaire.
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In this effort, the Republic of Macedonia has been working on reforming the energy sector policies to achieve a single regional stable regulatory market framework capable of attracting investment in transmission networks and generation capacity, and fostering competition and interconnectivity, thus ensuring supply and realizing economies of scale.
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The present Energy Law enacted in 2011 will result in full electricity market liberalization by 2015, and also aims to make energy markets (electricity, heat, and gas) functional and more competitive, to remove inconsistencies with secondary legislation and regulations (licensing process, tariffs, grid code, etc.), and to better define the roles of energy sector authorities (government, ministry, agencies)
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The Government of Macedonia has also been working on implementing regulatory and legal reforms to improve the predictability of the business environment to provide a competitive and attractive framework for potential investors into the sector.
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GoM has recently adopted a number of documents essential for prompting clean energy development over the next 10 years, such as Strategies on Renewable Energy Source (RES), Energy Efficiency, and Energy Sector Development, and Action Plans for implementation of these strategies.
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GoM has established feed-in tariffs (FITs) for grid-connected renewable energy technologies (RETs) as the main policy incentive to attract investments in renewable energy.
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In September 2010, the GoM adopted the Strategy on Use of Renewable Energy Sources in the Republic of Macedonia by 2020 prepared by the Macedonia Academy of Arts and Sciences (MANU). The main objective of the Strategy is to provide information on potential and possible RES exploitation in the country and a strategy for Macedonia to attain the 21% RES target as a percentage of gross final energy consumption by 2020, including a target of 10 % bio-fuels in transport by 2020, in line with the EU directive.
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This Strategy identifies options for utilization of RES and ways of achieving the 21% target. It provides an overview of RES options for Macedonia, a brief description of the electric power system and its absorption capacity, analysis of RES impact on the electric power system, FITs and financing mechanisms for FITs, RES-related EU legislation, and the legal and institutional framework for RES in the Republic of Macedonia.
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There are several scenarios in this Strategy which project new RES contributions to final energy consumption between 2011 and 2020. During the first five-year period, the main contributions come from biomass heat and bio-fuels, with significant hydropower contributions coming in 2013 and the first wind power contributions coming in 2014. In the second five-year period, most of the new contributions come from hydropower and wind power plants and geothermal heating applications.