November 24 (SeeNews) - North Macedonia's state-owned electricity producer ESM said it has selected an unnamed Albanian firm to supply 90,000 tonnes of coal for the needs of the REK Bitola thermal power plant (TPP).
The power utility will soon sign an agreement for the procurement of the coal with the firm, which was the sole successful bidder in a tender for the supply of up to 900,000 tonnes of coal for the REK Bitola TPP, ESM said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
ESM received 14 offers for coal supply from nine firms, but a part of them did not meet the technical characteristics of the required coal, whereas some firms did not submit complete documentation within the specified deadline, the company said.
ESM added it will launch a new call for the remaining 810,000 tonnes for REK Bitola and additional 170,000 tonnes for the REK Oslomej TPP.
The power utility launched tenders for the supply of coal for the needs of REK Bitola and REK Oslomej in October as part of plans to beat the rise in energy prices by increasing power output from coal.
ESM's general manager, Vasko Kovacevski, said in October that the company will increase its power output from coal from December to April to meet demand from local companies as the global energy crisis intensifies. ESM will sell the electricity at prices lower than those on the free market, Kovacevski added.
Under the plan, ESM will increase coal mining and purchase additional coal. It will also put into operation the third unit of REK Bitola TPP and continue to operate REK Oslomej TPP. The government previously intended to stop the operation of Oslomej as part of a plan to build a solar power plant at the site of an old coal mine in the mining and energy complex.