NDI - programme for legislative advocacy. Enabling private persons to sell electricity from renewable energy sources (Law on energy)

Within the next two-year programme for legislative advocacy led by the National Democratic Institute (https://www.ndi.org/macedonia), Analytica was selected with the proposal for new legislation i.e with the initiative to amend the Energy Law in order to enable individuals, without them having to start a business and open a company, to be authorized producers and sellers of electricity from renewable sources.

One of the measures to stimulate the development of the use of renewable energy among citizens is exactly the possibility of individuals without establishing a firm to be able to produce electricity from renewable sources and sell it directly to the system. So far this possibility does not exist, with that even though there is quite a progress in the RES sector it has been slow and inadequate. As an incentive for developing and encouraging the use of renewable energy, this is an opportunity to activate households through enabling them if they invest in solar panels, to sell the electricity they produce with a prior agreement with the operator i.e. distributor EVN (or whoever) and not only use it for their own purposes.

Although until now there have been initiatives from various stakeholders, institutions, etc. this measure did not become part of any energy related legislation. There are expected obstacles and problems in making this part of the legislation such as lack of capacity of the network to receive the electricity, etc., however, these issues can be explained and properly addressed in the legal solution that will only give the opportunity to households to sell their electricity and thus stimulate further market development of RES.

The utilization of RES in this way can encourage the strengthening of households as consumers as it would enable active participation as well as profit from participation in the electricity market. It will also encourage smarter consumer habits. Besides sales, the consumption of energy, which they produce, can reduce the cost of the energy system, as for example the use of photovoltaics in sunny countries like Macedonia could help reduce peak demand in the network when, for example everybody turns on the air-conditioners on working days when it is very hot outside. Further, by local production and consumption of electricity, the losses in the system can be reduced and also it can provide financing to the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

The idea is to make an analysis of the Macedonian legislation through comparative analysis with a country/ies where this measure is successfully implemented in order to be able to draw up a legal solution to finally grant private persons the possibility to sell electricity from renewable energy, with which measure not only will the households benefit, but also the companies and the state itself.

	Настан - Мрежно мерење во РМ, можности, перспективи, примери – како до почиста енергија
2017	May
	МРЕЖНО МЕРЕЊЕ ВО РЕПУБЛИКА МАКЕДОНИЈА, МОЖНОСТИ, ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ, ПРИМЕРИ – КАКО ДО ПОЧИСТА ЕНЕРГИЈА?

Responsible person for this initiative is Sonja Risteska, Research and management coordinator in Analytica, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.