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EVN May Lose Macedonia License – Official
Skopje | 08 January 2009 | Macedonia’s main power company, run by the Austrian utility EVN, may lose its licence if the state power regulatory commission determines it failed to provide a quality power supply over the New Year holidays.
The company should submit detailed list of all the power shut downs and their cause over the last month until January 10, the head of the regulatory commission, Slave Ivanovski told local Vest daily.
“If we determine non-compliance to the licence conditions, the procedure will start to revoke it. This procedure takes about 30 days”, Ivanovski said.
Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski opened the debate about EVN’s role at the weekend. Speaking to the press he blamed the Austrian utility of misusing its position as sole supplier to households and mentioned his concerns that the company had not invested enough in the power grid to prevent the frequent defects and met the terms of the licence.
“The people suffer most because of the frequent power shut downs that more resemble restrictions than defects. They can hardly pass as defects because they are too many and to often”, he said.
EVN, which is active around the Balkans, replied by saying the the grid outages had been reduced this year to nearly half, and they had been in no way intentional.
“EVN has invested about €80 million in compliance to the purchase agreement. By April 2009, when the three year obligatory investment period expires, the investment will have reached €100 million thus exceeding the commitment for total investments of €96 million”, EVN spokesperson Lence Karpuzovska told Vest.
Karpuzovska explained that the recent blackouts in some parts of the country had been caused by the increased demand over the holidays.
EVN entered Macedonia in 2006 by buying the state owned power supplier ESM. Its arrival was said to bring an improved power supply, but also sparked fears of price hikes that until then have been kept in check a social measure by the government. Prices have increased on several occasions since then.
If EVN’s license were to be revoked, the law envisages that a technical inspection should control the power supply until a new supplier is chosen.
Source: Balkaninsight
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1 Response for “EVN May Lose Macedonia License – Official”
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Once again Gruevski and his minions are proving their lack of experience. A PM playing populist politics. Instead of getting the facts before opening his mouth, he bad mouths a foriegn investor – great way to attract investors Nikola! EVN is doing exactly what needs to be done to recoup it’s investment – getting people to pay their bills. I would like to know what the plan will be when the government pulls the license? Will EVN revert back to ESM? Another mind numbingly dumb approach to dealing with problems by this young man.