Intensification of controls of regulated entities by URSO

URSO has prepared an inspection plan for the year 2025, according to which in-depth inspections will take place, i.e. supervision and state supervision, which will be carried out at 156 entities. This number has increased from 50 inspections carried out in 2024. Preferably, these inspections are to be carried out at entities that have been brought to the attention of the URSO by the initiative of natural and legal persons.

There will be 42 inspections in the field of electricity, 12 inspections in the area of ​​gas, 85 inspections in the area of ​​thermal energy, 13 inspections in the area of ​​water management and 39 inspections in the area of ​​other. 32 subjects will be checked for several commodities at the same time

Change of OKTE operating procedure

At the end of the year, OKTE decided to change its operating procedure again. Among other things, the changes are related to the connection of Slovakia to the MARI and PICASSO transmission systems

The changes will mainly be:

 -  new guarantees of the origin of energy - this will be a certificate that will be used by suppliers to prove where the energy supplied by them comes from. Currently, these guarantees work mainly on the electricity market, where auctions are often held. Now, however, these same guarantees should also be applied to renewable gases;

 - changes in the deadlines for billing of regulating electricity between OKTE and heat suppliers - this change affects the change of 9 calendar days for payment of the billing invoice by OKTE. This period will now be 22 calendar days.

Amendment to the EIA Act

At the end of last year, the amendment was finally approved, before the earlier one came into effect. That's why we had to work with not one but two amendments in the new year.

The amendments should bring with them the incorporation of the proposals of the European Commission and the acceleration and simplification of processes.

But what changes do the two amendments to the EIA Act, adopted right after each other, actually bring?

a. Amendment of the Act on Territorial Planning - emphasis on landscape protection;

b. Removal of the so-called goldplating – removal of stricter rules than required by the EU;

c. This removal should also be helped by the reduction of bureaucracy within the arbitrariness of officials - the length of approval processes should reach the level of European countries, by shortening approval processes that currently last 400 or even 500 days to 180 days;

d. Guaranteed public participation as provided for in European legislation and the Aarhus Convention;

e. Separation of the investigative process and the mandatory assessment, with an emphasis on expertise in the assessment;

f. The definition of "affected municipality" has been narrowed down to only the municipality in whose territory the activity is to be implemented.

Other points of interest

- Several different fees are included in the price of electricity for 2025, the largest of which is a special levy for the National Nuclear Fund

- SEPS successfully joined the MARI platform on 03.12.2024 - together with the connection to the PICASSO platform, the entry into international platforms for the procurement of regulatory energy was completed

- The Germans canceled the controversial gas surcharge – it was a fee for using the German transportation system, which was supposed to compensate Germany for the cost of buying gas outside of Russia.

- A new power transformer was added in Podunajské Biskupice, which was connected by SEPS

- At the end of 2024, the historically highest amount for compensation was distributed to companies - Mondi SCP, Slovnaft and Fortischem received the highest compensations.

- Currently, the gas supply in underground reservoirs in Slovakia is at the level of 76%. In addition, Slovakia will also have Azerbaijan's natural gas at its disposal thanks to the short-term SPP contract.