The Macedonia electricity market currently consists of three separate segments of end-users:
The households, which are connected to the low-voltage grids, and pay a regulated price; the companies which are on the low-voltage grid (small industry and SMEs) and pay the same regulated price as the households; and the 10 largest electricity users in the country, which are directly connected to the high-voltage grid and operate on a liberalized market as of September 2008. The customers paying the regulated price are referred to as tariff customers, while the customers on the liberalized market are referred to as eligible customers.
The liberalized market for the largest users in effect drove these users to secure their supply through electricity imports. After amendments to the Energy Law came in to effect in September 2008, the 10 largest electricity users in the country have had to secure their own electricity supply. They secure their supply through electricity traders. Most of the time, there is a shortage of domestic supply, which is provided at below (regional) market rates to tariff customers. In effect, this has forced the large users to start to import their own electricity supply from the regional market. However, during time periods when domestic supply exceeds demand by regulated customers, the traders also buy domestically produced electricity. In addition to the price the large users agree with the traders, they pay a regulated transmission fee to MEPSO (Makedonski Elektro Prenosen Sistem Operator, or Macedonian Electricity Transmission System Operator), which operates the domestic transmission network.
The market for tariff customers has been partly unbundled, with generation, transmission, and distribution split between three separate regulated monopolies. ELEM is the regulated generator of electricity and monopoly wholesale supplier for retail distributor EVN. In case ELEM itself does not generate enough electricity to supply all tariff customers, it imports additional power. MEPSO is the sole operator of the electricity transmission network.6 EVN is the retail distributor, i.e., the supplier of tariff customers.
EVN buys transmission services from MEPSO and power from ELEM. EVN concludes individual contracts with retail end-users and collects payments. Prices of the services these three market parties provide, as well as end-user prices for tariff customers, are regulated by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). While ELEM and MEPSO remain state-owned, the retail distributor was privatized and subsequently sold to EVN Austria in April 2006.
Source Serbia-energy.com
