Electricity will eventually become cheaper, but only for a few. Industry Minister Joseph Sikela came up with such a plan after company representatives put pressure on the government not to allow the regulated component proposed by the Energy Regulatory Office to grow significantly. Subsidizing part of the price to energy-intensive businesses and trying to use at least part of the proceeds from selling emissions allowances to pay for photovoltaics is back in play. At the same time, the European Commission prohibits it.
Next year, the share of regulated components in the price of electricity will increase significantly. Purchased electricity, which has reached record highs in markets over the past two years, will now make electricity more expensive. Government-regulated payments must now grow, based on demands for decarbonisation and the promotion of renewable sources.
According to ERO’s proposal, the regulated component of electricity should increase by 71 per cent for households, 113 per cent for large enterprises using electricity at the high voltage level and 206 per cent at the very high voltage level. Therefore, the biggest pressure on the government to reduce this rise comes from energy-intensive companies. The industry responded to calls after a few weeks.
“To help reduce energy prices, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has proposed two projects as part of the consolidation package. First of these, the government may decide this year to provide funds to adjust the regulated component of electricity prices, and the Energy Regulatory Office will reflect this in the new price decision. Now, the energy “The Regulatory Office sets prices only once a year on November 30. Thus, the government will have the opportunity to provide funding for supported energy sources throughout the year, which will make it possible to react quickly to the situation in the market,” Ministry spokesman Marek Vošahlík told the authors.
“The second is the opportunity to waive POZE tariffs for certain types of customers. Thanks to this, for example, the government can waive the payment of tariffs according to individual voltage levels. By combining these measures, the government will reduce electricity costs, protect certain groups of customers from market fluctuations and help increase the competitiveness of companies.” Voshalik said. The state should have mechanisms in place to assess which businesses are affected by decarbonisation measures to the extent that their indirect energy costs rise proportionately.
Industry Minister Joseph Sikela has previously talked about the possibility of using money from emission allowances to subsidize contributions to renewable energy sources (RES). Now he mentioned her again. Until last year, the company’s households paid RES support as part of the regulated electricity component, after which the payment was fully covered by the government. In total, the government will spend 125 billion crowns this year to help with high energy prices. Of this, 27 billion is the compensation fee for RES, 28 billion was spent by the state to ensure subsidies and computer services for CEPS and distributors for losses in electricity and gas distribution systems. The state will spend up to 60 billion crowns to control energy prices.
At the same time, the European Commission notes that Revised Order European Emissions Trading aims to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a cost-effective and economically efficient manner” and ruled that revenue from the payments could be used to support photovoltaics from 2009 to 2010. The so-called Solar Grandfathers from this era remain on customer invoices to this day.
In addition, the Minister of Finance Zbyněk Stanjura (ODS) said that half of the 80 billion kroner that the emission payments will bring is already included in the income of the state budget, so the money cannot be used.
