Bulgaria has promised to provide North Macedonia with additional amounts of electricity for the winter, as announced after the meeting between Bulgarian Prime Minister Galab Donev and his Macedonian counterpart Dimitar Kovachevski in Sofia on Monday.
Bulgaria can export about 200-megawatt hours of electricity per day to the Republic of North Macedonia until the end of March 2023. This is approximately 10% of Bulgaria’s electricity exports to neighbouring countries, which stabilises the electricity network in the region.
There will be an electricity export contract between the two countries, but there is no information yet on whether the prices will be lower than those on the free market.
“We will unite with Bulgaria to find a solution for electricity supply,” said the Macedonian prime minister. He noted that North Macedonia did not have COVID-19 vaccines two years ago, and Bulgaria helped, now the country does not have enough electricity.
The two prime ministers discussed the possibilities for North Macedonia to store gas in the Bulgarian gas storage “Chiren”.
“Bulgaria has traditionally been and still is an energy leader in the region to guarantee security in the Balkans sector,” said Bulgarian Prime Minister Galab Donev.
“Specific opportunities for cooperation in the field of electricity and gas transportation were discussed, such as the possibility of exporting from Bulgaria additional electricity capacities, both for the needs of the economy and industry of the Republic of North Macedonia and for domestic consumers,” said Donev.
Through Bulgarian gas storage in Chiren, supplies of liquefied gas will be balanced for North Macedonia’s daily needs.
