Macedonian Capital Steps Closer to Gasification

Two companies, Turkey's Aksoy Energy and CPL Concordia of Italy, have passed the next stage in an important competition for the announced €100 million gasification of Skopje, it was announced.

Macedonia's Transport Ministry is due to select the winning private partner for the energy project in September.

If all goes to plan, construction is expected to start early next year.

Under the terms of the planned agreement, the private partner will have to build and operate the gas grid and it will be allowed to reap the profits for the next 20 years. After that, the grid will be in public hands.

“Gasification will significantly lower [energy] expenditures of companies and household. Our estimates show that the expenses should be cut for a third while the investment for a connection should repay itself in two to three years,” the Transport Minister, Mile Janakieski, said, explaining the potential benefits of the changeover.

Construction of the gas grid will take five years or so to complete but the first consumers will be able to access gas much earlier, in 2016.

Konstantin Dimitrov, head of the Macedonian Centre for Energy Efficiency, MACEF, an NGO, warned that gas will not become a normal source of energy for Macedonians for some time to come.

“Construction of the system will proceed in stages and in the beginning I do not expect many households to connect to the grid," he said.

"State institutions, like schools and hospitals will probably be the first to make the investment and connect because they will get cheaper energy," he added.

Plans for the gasification of Skopje have been around for years. At present, only a handful of companies in the entire country have access to Russian gas...