North Macedonia issues tender for first large-scale PV plant

North Macedonia’s state-owned electric company, Elektrani na Makedonija (ELEM), has issued a tender for the construction of the country’s first large-scale PV power plant. According to the tender announcement, published on the MSME Global Art portal, the closing date of the procurement exercise is April 10.

ELEM is financing 33% of the €10 million project with its own funds, while 67% will be backed by long-term debt from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It will be adjacent to ELEM’s TPP Oslomej thermal power plant, approximately 110 km southwest of Skopje in the vicinity of Oslomej, a village in western Macedonia.

The selected developer is expected to start construction in July, and will complete the project within 10 months. The contract includes 36 months of O&M services and the tender will be conducted by e-procurement, using the EBRD Client E-Procurement Portal (ECEPP).

The EBRD agreed to finance part of the project with €5.9 million in January.

“The project is part of the strategy of ELEM to diversify its production mix away from coal, and increase the production share from renewable energy sources which will provide clean energy in a country and a region with serious capacity shortages and high levels of carbon intensity,” the utility stated in September, when it launched the project.

North Macedonia covers its power demand with thermal power plants. It currently has an installed PV capacity of just 18 MW, most of which consists of distributed generation. Thermal power plants account for 842 MW of its total power generation capacity of 1.41 GW, with hydroelectricity and wind accounting for 553.6 MW and 36.8 MW, respectively. The country aims to produce around 28% of its power from renewable energy by 2020.