North Macedonia becomes first Contracting Party to designate market operator in line with EU CACM Regulation

The Energy Community Secretariat welcomes a recent decision of the Government of North Macedonia to designate the Macedonian Electricity Market Operator - MEMO Ltd as an operator of the organized electricity market in North Macedonia. By this decision MEMO became the first market operator in the Energy Community to be designated in line with the requirements of the EU Capacity Allocation and Congestion Management (CACM) Regulation. This will support the implementation of market coupling project between North Macedonia and Bulgaria initiated under the auspices of the Secretariat and envisaged to be launched in Q3 2021.

The decision was made in line with the Government’s decree on operation of the organized market operator, including the necessary technical, staffing and financial conditions, adopted on 29 October 2019. The decree fully transposes an Energy Community Regulatory Board recommendation on the designation of a nominated electricity market operator in line with the CACM Regulation, as part of its early implementation in the Energy Community.

As a next step, MEMO will launch a tendering procedure for the selection of a service provider for the trading platform for a day-ahead market. The establishment and operationalization of MEMO as an organized electricity market operator in North Macedonia was supported by technical assistance projects under the WB6 regional energy market connectivity initiative, implemented by the Energy Community Secretariat and funded by the European Commission.