Vasko Kovacevski, head of the state owned ELEM energy company, said that the transition to renewable energy, that was already underway, made it more difficult to switch back to burning fossil fuels this winter. Macedonia is now facing a major energy crisis due to insufficient coal reserves in the key Bitola plant, and had to spend 35 million EUR from the central budget for energy imports.

With the capacity we now have, it is not possibly to produce 5,000 GWh of energy. When you have a strategy to move to renewable sources, and you already go half the way there, it is very difficult to walk the path back to coal. But, with the support of the Government, we were able to activate TEC Negotino (oil fired plant) and TE-TO (private gas fired plant) and we were able to save the budget additional 37 million EUR, Kovacevski said.

The Government gave ELEM 29,58 million EUR in November and December, and additional 4,85 million for imports in January and February. The Zaev regime announced plans to shut down the key REK Bitola coal plant, and to replace it with gas, wind and solar capacity.  This, coupled with gross corruption in the plant, led to the disastrous results this winter, aggravated by the spike in gas prices before and during the war in Ukraine.