North Macedonia is ready to adopt the country’s first-ever separate law governing the use of energy from renewable sources. The Draft Law on the Use of Energy from Renewable Sources (“Draft RES Law”) is aligned with the latest changes in European energy legislation, most notably the RED III Directive. This Directive governs the promotion and use of renewable energy sources and is binding for all Energy Community member states.
At the core of the Draft RES Law is the introduction of a two-way contract for difference, a widely adopted European market mechanism used to award market premiums to renewable energy producers. This model provides revenue stability by limiting windfall profits during periods of high market prices and protecting against extreme price volatility, thus providing investors with both security and predictability. In North Macedonia, these market premiums will be awarded through competitive auctions organised by the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources based on government-set quotas. This enables eligible projects to secure premiums for all or part of their capacity while ensuring fair competition and stable pricing conditions. Combined with clearly defined national renewable energy targets, this framework signals North Macedonia’s readiness to attract substantial capital into its clean energy sector.
The Draft RES Law also regulates net metering and net billing for the first time in the country’s legislation, allowing surplus energy to be carried forward as an energy deposit for future use or calculated in monetary value and applied to reduce bills in subsequent periods. This encourages active participation in the energy transition and supports renewable energy communities.
The Draft RES Law further focuses on speeding up the development of renewable energy projects in the electricity, heating, cooling, and transport sectors. By regulating guarantees of origin for energy from renewable sources, the Draft RES Law also boosts competitiveness by linking North Macedonia’s energy systems with regional and EU markets.
The Draft RES Law is now open for public consultation, available on the National Electronic Register of Regulations (ENER), where interested stakeholders have until 30 August 2025 to submit comments, proposals, and feedback on the text.
The information in this document does not constitute legal advice on any particular matter and is provided for general informational purposes only.