Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said that the Government has a clear energy strategy and knows that the time is coming when North Macedonia should close its coal-fired energy generation facilities. The Government of North Macedonia is considering Greece’s offer of co-ownership, through the state-owned power utility ESM, of an 800 MW gas-fired power plant to be built in northern Greece.
The plant will be built near the town of Alexandroupoli, where the floating LNG terminal will be built.
The offer came amid the Government’s ambitious decarbonization plan which envisages closing the power plants running on coal and fuel oil and embracing renewable energy such as wind and solar and switching to transitional fuel, namely natural gas.
According PM Zaev, the state is considering accepting a very friendly offer from Greece, where it would be a co-owner of 800 MW gas-fired power plant near Alexandroupoli. which would produce two and a half times more energy than the amount of the energy deficit that North Macedonia currently has.
Decarbonization plan envisages the closure of one of three units of TPP Bitola within five years and the closure of the remaining two units in the next 10 to 15 years. It also envisages the conversion of oil-fired TPP Negotino to natural gas.