North Macedonia’s ESM signs two contracts for Bogdanci wind farm expansion

North Macedonia’s state-owned power producer Elektrani na Severna Makedonija (ESM), formerly ELEM, has signed two contracts on the Bogdanci wind farm expansion with a consortium of Germany’s Fichtner and North Macedonia’s Geing.

The contracts for the Bogdanci wind farm, North Macedonia’s first wind farm, were signed by Vasko Kovachevski, CEO of ESM, and Elena Cekulaeva, a representative of the Fichtner-Geing consortium.

The largest portion of funds for one of the contracts has been secured from a EUR 162,900 KfW grant

The first, EUR 164,312 contract relates to consulting services for updating environmental impact assessment (EIA) including geological and geotechnical testing. The largest portion of funds has been secured from a EUR 162,900 grant approved by German development bank KfW. ESM and KfW signed the contract on the grant in August.

The second, EUR 985,192 contract cpvers consulting services for the design, the preparation of tendering documentation, and the supervision of works.

The Bogdanci wind farm expansion requires a EUR 21 million investment

The second phase of the Bogdanci wind farm, the first Macedonian wind power plant, envisages the construction of 4 more wind turbines with a capacity of about 13 MW. The wind farm now has 16 2.3 MW wind turbines, a total of 36.8 MW. The Bogdanci wind farm expansion calls for a EUR 21 million investment, of which EUR 18 million was provided by KfW, and the rest secured by ESM.

According to ESM’s press release, the expansion of the Bogdanci wind farm will add 37 GWh of annual electricity production to supply about 6,000 households. The total production of the 50 MW wind farm will now reach 137 GWh.

The new investment will increase the share of renewable energy in ESM’s overall electricity production by 3%.

The biggest share of ESM’s power production comes from coal-fired power plants with a combined installed capacity of 824 MW, generating 5,000 GWh annually, while hydropower plants (HPPs) with a combined capacity of 554 MW provide 1,200 GWh and the Bogdanci wind farm 100 GWh. The share of renewables in electricity production is about 20%.