Slovak Republic (SK)

Market LiberalisationEnergy Market Indizes (IEA)National Mix of Energy SourcesRegulatory Office URSOMarket Operator OKTEDistribution System Operator (DSO)

The energy market in Slovak Republic has been fully liberalized and unbundled, according to the EU Regulatory packets. This has been one precondition for the EU membership in year 2005. The energy markets in Germany, Austria and Poland have been from the beginning a market for energy exports for Czech Republic.

The EU legal unbundlings sectors

  • Production
  • Transport (TSO)
  • Distribution (DSO)
  • Sales

are separated in individual companies in Electricity and Natural Gas market. All customers have free access to supply markets now.

The major energy sources in Slovak Republic are:

  • Nuklear Energy
  • Natural Gas import via Ukraine
  • Hard coal and lignite in the coalfield in Northern Bohemia with a share of approx. 50%
  • Hydroelectric power along the country’s rivers
  • Renewable Energy based on photovoltaics and biogas

Key energy statistics, 2020

Energy production 285,1211 TJ
Electricity final consumption 27,21 TWh
Total CO2 emissions 26,5 Mt of CO2

Source iea.org

Source: iea.org

Energy Regulatory Office in Slovak Republic

Since its establishment in 2001, the Regulatory Office for Network Industries has gone through many challenging periods. There have been a lot of changes, but the Office´s mission has remained unchanged, since until the network industries have a monopoly character, regulation will still be necessary. Over the “transport” of energy on its route from the production source to the outlet in the consumer´s apartment will permanently have to watch a certain state authority that prevents the abuse of the supplier´s or network operator´s monopoly position at the expense of consumers.

The Office, as a state authority in network industries where there is no competition, strikes a balance between the interests of investors and consumers. It must take care to protect the interests of consumers, as well as the interests of investors. Naturally, an investor would not do business in this field if he did not make profit. Therefore, the Office has to create an environment where, on the one hand, it pays for the entrepreneur to invest, but, on the other hand, the consumer does not pay too much. In other words, the prices must be fair for both sides.

The Regulatory Office for Network Industries pursues its mission based on Act No. 250/2012 Coll. on Regulation in Network Industries, and in particular, by setting tariffs and terms of their application in network industries, and terms of carrying out the regulated activities.

The regulated activities include:

  • generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity and related services,
  • activities of the short-term electricity market operator,
  • production, transmission, distribution, storage and supply of gas and related services,
  • production, distribution and supply of heat,
  • production, distribution and supply of drinking water by public water supply system,
  • wastewater (sewage) collection and treatment through public sewage system,
  • collection of surface water and energy water from watercourses, utilization of the hydropower potential of watercourses.
The Regulatory Office for Network Industries is a state authority which is independent from both state power and regulated entities. In carrying out its activities, the Office is not subject to any political or business groups.

Slovak electricity and gas market operator

OKTE, a.s. is in charge of organization and evaluation of the organized short-term electricity market in the territory of the Slovak Republic in accordance with Act no. 251/2012 Coll. on Energy and on Amendments to Some Acts (The Act on Energy sector), Act No. 250/2012 Coll. on Regulation in Network Industries (The Act on Regulation), Decree of the Regulatory Office for Network Industries No. 24/2013 Coll. laying down the rules for the functioning of the internal electricity market and the rules for the functioning of the internal gas market (Market Rules) as well as the OKTE, a.s. Operation Order (Operation Order). The aforementioned business activity of the company is regulated and subject to price regulation by the Regulatory Office for Network Industries.

The organized short-term electricity market, either intraday or day-ahead, allows its participants to submit their supply or demand orders on a daily basis, to increase their chances of settling their trading position prior to the electricity supply/off-take and to reduce the likelihood of an imbalance between the planned and the actual value of the electricity supply/off-take.

Since 19 November 2014, OKTE, a.s. together with the national regulatory authorities, transmission system operators and national market operators of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania have successfully launched and operate the cross-border coupling of the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian electricity markets in the form of implicit allocation of transmission capacities on the common cross-border profiles.

OKTE, a.s. has implemented a continuous intraday trading solution for the electricity market participants in the Slovak bidding zone. The launch of the intraday electricity market platform itself took place on 1 April 2016.

Source: www.okte.sk

DSO – Electricity market in Slovak Republic

The type and amount of fees are determined by the central state authority in the field of energy market regulation – the Energy Regulatory Authority. Within a given component, these are the following types of charges:

Distribution fee and reserved capacity. Since liberalisation market participants are entitled to choose their Natural Gas supplier freely, energy distribution remains a regulated and licenced business segment due to the natural monopole of physical Natural Gas distribution networks. The distribution fee covers the cost of transporting gas through the gas pipeline from the transfer stations to the offtake point (i.e. your household). The distribution fee consists of two components: fixed and variable. The fixed component includes a monthly fee, the amount of which does not depend on the amount of gas taken.

While after liberalisation market participants are entitled to choose the electricity supplier freely, energy distribution remains a regulated and licenced business segment due to the natural monopoly of physical electricity distribution lines. The electricity distribution market has been mainly affected by

  • the history of the development of the electricity industry during the communistic area by state owned companies
  • the opening of the electricity market in the 1990’s.
  • the privatisation of the industrial segments of Czech Republic by acquisition of companies by foreign investors
  • legal unbundling due to European legislation

In the Czech Republic, three distribution companies manage distribution

  • ZSE  in the area of,
    • West-Slovakia
    • Bratislava
  • VSE in the area of
    • East-Slovakia
  • SSE in the area of
    • Zentral-Slovakia

DSO – Natural Gas market in Slovak Republic

The Natural Gas distribution market has been mainly affected by

  • the history of the development of the Natural Gas industry during the communistic area by state owned companies
  • the opening of the Natural Gas market in the 1990’s
  • the privatisation of the industrial segments of Slovak Republic by acquisition of companies by foreign investors
  • legal unbundling due to European legislation

In the Slovak Republic, now one main distribution company is managing the distribution in all areas: distribution for most of the country is provided by SPP (Slovenský plynárenský priemysel, a.s.).

Natural Gas in Slovak Republic on PXE