The Story of the Macedonian Heat Market – How to Reform It?
The Story of the Macedonian Heat Market – How to Reform It?

Author(s): Ana Stojilovska
Subject(s): Energy and Environmental Studies, Governance, Environmental and Energy policy, Environmental interactions, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Аналитика Тинк-тенк Организација
Keywords: North Macedonia; EU integration; energy policy; heat market; energy; Energy Community Treaty; legal reforms; energy reforms; renewable energy; heating homes and offices; energy efficiency; Energy Regulatory Commission;
Summary/Abstract: Being an EU candidate country brought many reforms in Macedonia including significant energy market restructuring. Having signed the Energy Community Treaty, the country is undergoing many institutional, market and legal reforms. In fact, the relevant energy legal acts have been adopted; new institutional and market actors have been set; and incentives for increasing the share of renewables and improving energy efficiency are being taken. However, the area which remained overshadowed by the other energy reforms is the heat market. Dominated by an extremely high consumption of electricity and partly supplied by an under-developed district heating (DH) which is in the hands of a dominant actor, the Macedonian heat market shows patterns of energy inefficiency and lack of vision for long-term development. In the context of increasing prices of the energy sources and heat bills, the customers are faced with ever growing worries of heating their homes and offices. Despite some developments in the heat sector, one of the possible solutions – the gasification process - progresses slowly and furthermore no significant structural reforms are planned, leaving this energy sector one of the most problematic in Macedonia. The aim of this research is to inspect possible policy solutions for reforming the Macedonian heat market and drafting policy recommendations to the respective Macedonian authorities for the purpose of improving the state of the heat market and heat consumers’ wellbeing.

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