VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski said that the reason why the city of Skopje is facing a major energy crisis, with reduced deliveries through its central heating system, is the way its key plant TE-TO is structured.

The gas fired plant located in downtown Skopje produces electricity, and is used to heat water as a by-product. According to Mickoski, the company has a very lucrative contract to provide electricity during workdays, but sees little business sense in firing up its generators over the weekend, when electricity demand is lower, just so that it would provide enough warm water for heating.
According to Mickoski, this is the result of the overall energy crisis Macedonia is in, with collapsed domestic electricity production.

How can we overcome this? How can we have the radiators warm again and provide enough electricity. ELEM (ESM) needs to purchase sufficient electricity from abroad for the days when TE-TO does not operate with full capacity. We lack electricity anyway, and you can steal around the contract (a reference to the corruption that is pervasive in the state run energy sector). Reduce spending of the hydro plants, and save as much energy as you can. This is going to be a very long year, said Mickoski, who was manager of ELEM, Macedonia’s main state owned energy producing company.

With 220 MW, TE-TO is the newest large energy generating capacity in Macedonia, but due to the inability of the country to secure lower gas prices, it often stays unused. The record high prices this winter have made the plant profitable.