Electricity market liberalization lowers prices by 32% in North Macedonia

The electricity market liberalization has decreased prices for small commercial customers by about 32%, said Marko Bislimoski, president of North Macedonia’s Energy Regulatory Commission, local media reported.

These consumers became eligible to choose their supplier from January 1 this year, and they are using the opportunity. Bislimoski said that the price they paid before January 1 and market liberalization was EUR 150 per MWh or about MKD 9 per kWh.

Their total costs for the procurement of electricity on the open market have decreased by 32.4%, Bislimoski noted, adding that he anticipates those costs to continue to get even lower in the coming period.

This example demonstrates that the electricity market liberalization has been successful, especially for small commercial consumers. Liberalization was made possible by the adoption of a new energy law in May last year.

On the other hand, the conditions on the regional market have not yet been met for households to enter the open market. Bislimoski said that the regional electricity price would have to be by 50% lower to push these customers to leave the universal supplier and to choose a supplier on the open market.

He said that the price on the regional market is currently about EUR 65 per MWh or about MKD 4 per kWh. With the MKD 2 (EUR 0.032) costs of distribution, transmission, and other taxes and levies, the price reaches about MKD 6 (EUR 0.098) per kWh.

The price currently paid by households on the regulated market is about MKD 4.5 (EUR 0.073), so the regional market price needs to be about MKD 2.5 (EUR 0.041) to make these consumers get to the open market, Bislimoski said.

He did not project when this could happen, but he said that when the market conditions change, suppliers will offer tariff models to encourage them to leave the universal supplier and turn to the open market.