Monitoring of Energy Legislation August 2024

See the most important news in the field of Slovak energy legislation for the month of August 2024.

RONI has initiated a comment procedure on the preliminary information on the draft RONI decree, which amends and supplements the Price decree in thermal energy.

Public consultations on the operational rules of the ZSD, SSD and VSD should not escape your attention either.

You can read more about these and many other interesting news in our monitoring for the month of August 2024, which you can also download in PDF format.

We wish you a pleasant reading!

1.          WHAT HAS CHANGED?

Note: In our monitoring of energy legislation, we monitor for you the changes to the above-mentioned legal regulations, which were published in the Collection of Laws of the Slovak Republic last month.

2.          YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED

■     RONI decree amending and supplementing the Price decree in thermal energy

On 20 August 2024, a comment procedure was initiated on the preliminary information on the draft decree of the Regulatory Office for Network Industries (hereinafter referred to as "RONI"), which amends and supplements the RONI decree no. 312/2022 Coll., establishing price regulation in thermal energy (hereinafter referred to as the "Price decree in thermal energy") under legislative process number: PI/2024/199.

The purpose of the submitted draft is to amend and supplement some provisions of the Price decree in in thermal energy, in particular the scope, structure and amount of economically justified costs.

The end date of the comment procedure was 3 September 2024.

The start date of the interdepartmental comment procedure is expected to be in October 2024

The current status of the legislative process, which is currently in the preliminary information comment stage, can be followed at this link.

■     RONI decree amending and supplementing the Price decree in the electric energy industry

On 15 August 2024, in the electronic collection of laws there was an update of the information on preliminary information on the draft RONI decree, which amends and supplements the RONI decree no. 154/2024 Coll., establishing price regulation in the electric energy industry and some conditions for the performance of regulated activities in the electric energy industry (hereinafter referred to as the "Price decree in the electric energy industry"). The number of this legislative process is PI/2024/183.

The purpose of the submitted draft is to amend and supplement some provisions of the Price decree in the electric energy industry, namely:

• the method of calculating the exceeding of the reserved capacity and the maximum reserved capacity,
• the method of regulating the price regulation of non-frequency auxiliary services,
• the method of regulating the price regulation of the supply of reactive electricity,
• method of regulating the price regulation for island facilities.

The preparatory stage of the legislative process was completed on 15 August 2024.

The expected start date of the interdepartmental comment procedure is October 2024.

The current status of the legislative process can be followed at this link.  

■     RONI decree amending and supplementing the Price decree in the gas industry

 On 15 August 2024, in the electronic collection of laws there was an update of the information on preliminary information on the draft RONI decree, which amends and supplements RONI decree no. 147/2024 Coll., establishing price regulation of regulated activities in the gas industry and some conditions for the performance of regulated activities in the gas industry (hereinafter referred to as the "Price decree in the gas industry"). The number of this legislative process is PI/2024/184.

The purpose of the draft is to amend and supplement some provisions of the Price decree in the gas industry, namely:

• the extent of price regulation in the gas industry,
• method of implementing price regulation of access to the storage tank and gas storage,
• details on the calculation of the price for access to the storage tank and gas storage, the method of submitting the price proposal and the documents for the price proposal for access to the storage tank and gas storage,
• details on determining the price for the trader's services in the supply of gas to the end consumer of gas for heat production and heat supply.

According to the accompanying documentation, the proposed modifications resulted from changes to the Regulation Act and the Energy Act, which were amended by Act no. 128/2024 Coll. and Act no. 143/2024 Coll.

The preparatory stage of the legislative process was completed on 15 August 2024.

The start date of the interdepartmental comment procedure is expected to be in October 2024.

The current status of the legislative process can be followed at this link.

■     RONI decree amending and supplementing the electricity market rules

On 15 August 2024, in the electronic collection of laws there was an update of the information on preliminary information on the draft RONI decree, which amends and supplements RONI decree no. 207/2023 Coll., establishing the rules for the functioning of the internal electricity market, the content requirements of the system operator's operating rules, the short-term electricity market organizer and the scope of commercial conditions that are part of the system operator's operating rules as amended (hereinafter referred to as "Electricity market rules") The number of this legislative process is PI/2024/185.

The submitted draft is intended to amend and supplement some provisions of the Electricity market rules, namely:

• details on concluding contracts for the supply of electricity and contracts for the joint supply of electricity, for changing the electricity supplier and aggregator and the relevant time limits in the process of changing the electricity supplier and aggregator, as well as details on the content of the billing invoice for the supply of electricity,
• regulation of the conditions for connecting electric power facilities and off-take electric facilities to the system, including clarification of the assumption of responsibility for a deviation at the transfer point of a small source and a local source that is connected to a connection point identical to the off-take point of the electricity consumer on the basis of a contract for the joint supply of electricity,
• regulation of data disclosure by the short-term electricity market organizer through an electronic system,
• specification of the requirements of the operating rules.

The preparatory stage of the legislative process was completed on 15 August 2024.

The start date of the comment procedure is expected to be in October 2024.

The current status of the legislative process can be followed at this link.

■     RONI decree amending and supplementing the Gas market rules

On 15 August 2024, in the electronic collection of laws there was an update of the information on preliminary information on the draft RONI decree, which amends and supplements RONI decree no. 208/2023 Coll., establishing the rules for the functioning of the internal gas market, the content of the system operator's and storage operator's operating rules and the scope of commercial conditions that are part of the system operator's operating rules as amended (hereinafter referred to as "Gas market rules"). The number of the legislative process is PI/2024/186.

The aim of this draft is to amend and supplement some provisions of the Gas market rules, namely:

• details on concluding gas supply contracts and joint gas supply contracts,
• details on changing the gas supplier, including time limits in the process of changing the gas supplier,
• details on the content of the invoice for gas supply,
• method of determining the state of the specified meter.

The preparatory stage of the legislative process was completed on 15 August 2024.

The start date of the interdepartmental comment procedure is expected to be in October 2024.

The current status of the legislative process can be followed at this link.

■     Guideline for the MoF– 2/2024 Call

On 28 August 2024, the Envirofond approved the guideline for the MoF– 2/2024 Call for the submission of applications for the provision of funds in the form of subsidies for projects from the Modernization Fund to support investments in the modernization of energy systems, including energy storage and energy efficiency improvement.

With this guideline, Envirofond (i) modified the mandatory attachment to the application for a subsidy no. 2 titled "Project budget", (ii) deleted the mandatory attachment to the application for a subsidy no. 6 titled "Extract from the criminal record of a legal entity" and (iii) modified the wording of the call directly in the text - part F2, par. 1.

The text of the guideline is available HERE.

The text of the MoF – 2/2024 call itself is available HERE.

At the same time, based on the publication of the guideline, Envirofond updated the document titled "Applicant's Guide", which is available HERE.

■     OKTE announces the end of support of TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 for the AMQP interface

On 6 August 2024, the company OKTE, a.s. (hereinafter referred to as "OKTE") has announced that, due to increasing the security of its information systems, the support of the TLS 1.0 and 1.1 network protocol for the AMQP interface of the XMtrade®/ISOT information system will be terminated.

OKTE states that for the test environment from 13 August 2024 and for the production environment from 10 September 2024 at 9:00 p.m. only TLS versions 1.2 and higher will be supported.

The above-mentioned change should affect users integrated on the AMQP interface XMtrade®/ISOT who do not have TLS 1.2 support implemented on the client side.

More detailed information is available HERE.

■     Ministry of the Economy of the Slovak Republic informs about the closing of the call from the Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Slovak Republic aimed at supporting the construction of facilities for the production of hydrogen by electrolysis

On 7 August 2024, the Ministry of the Economy of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as the "Ministry of the Economy") announced on its website that as of 30 July 2024, the Ministry of the Economy had stopped accepting applications for a contribution from the funds of the Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Slovak Republic as part of a call aimed at support for increasing the flexibility of electric power systems for higher integration of renewable energy sources (hereinafter referred to as "RES").

As part of the call, it was possible to apply for financial resources for the construction of facilities for the production of hydrogen by electrolysis using RES and for its storage.

Ministry of the Economy reports that 13 applications with a total requested amount of funds of more than 38 million EUR were submitted as part of the call in question, and all these applications were included in the process of assessing the fulfilment of the conditions for providing funds from the mechanism.

The anticipated time limit for the evaluation of applications is autumn 2024, and the allocation set for the call is 13.56 million EUR.

More detailed information is available HERE.

■     Ministry of the Economy informs about vouchers within the project Green Households and the project Green solidarity

On 8 August 2024, the Ministry of the Economy announced on its website that within the Green Households project aimed at supporting the installation of RES equipment (biomass boilers, heat pumps, solar collectors, photovoltaic panels or wind turbines) the issuance of vouchers is already open for all supported equipment types.

The Ministry of the Economy reports that since the initiation of the project, a total of more than 14,200 vouchers with a total value of more than 41 million EUR have been issued in the individual phases, while applicants are most interested in vouchers for photovoltaic panels and heat pumps.

The Ministry of the Economy further informs that requests for vouchers for all five types of supported equipment within the Green Households project can continue to be submitted continuously by filling in an electronic form. Vouchers are issued every Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. to all activated requests.

The Ministry of the Economy also repeatedly points out that in the third quarter of 2024 it plans to launch a new Green Solidarity project, in which low-income households will be able to receive vouchers with a support rate of up to 90% for the installation of biomass boilers, solar collectors and photovoltaic panels. A budget of 30 million EUR is allocated for this project.

You can find more information about the Green Households project and the planned Green Solidarity project  HERE.

■     OKTE informs about the publication of the annual report on the interconnection of daily and intraday electricity markets for the year 2023 and the report on the costs of SDAC and SIDC for the year 2023

On 12 August 2024, OKTE published information on its website that the NEMO Committee published the Annual Report for the year 2023 ("CACM Annual Report 2023").

The report was prepared by representatives of all nominated electricity market organizers in cooperation with transmission system operators, in accordance with the implementation of Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/1222 dated 24 July 2015, establishing guidelines for capacity allocation and congestion management (hereinafter referred to as "CACM Regulation").

The report in question describes the state of implementation of the CACM Regulation and related methodologies, including a comprehensive overview of the operational situation within the unified interconnection of daily and intraday electricity markets within the European Union in the year 2023.

At the same time, OKTE informs that the NEMO Committee has also published a report on SDAC and SIDC costs for 2023 on its website.

More information is available HERE.

Information on the SDAC and SIDC report for 2023 is available HERE.

■     RONI published the annual report for 2023

On 15 August 2024, RONI announced on its website the publication of the Annual Report for the year 2023.

You can read more about this report HERE.

■     The public consultation on changes to the technical conditions of access and connection to the ZSD has started

On 3 September 2024, RONI announced on its website the start of a public consultation on changes to the Technical conditions of access and connection to the system of the distribution system operator Západoslovenská distribučná, a. s. (hereinafter referred to as "ZSD").

It is possible to participate in the public consultation by sending comments to the email address verejnakonzultacia@urso.gov.sk.

The last day for sending comments is 17 September 2024 inclusive. Comments received after this date will not be taken into account.

Draft technical conditions of ZSD are available HERE.

You can read more about this report HERE.

■     SIEA informs about the amount of funds requested in the call aimed at supporting energy efficiency and the use of RES in public buildings

On the website of the Slovak Innovation and Energy Agency (hereinafter referred to as "SIEA"), on 3 September 2024, information was published on the amount of funds requested in the call of the Slovakia Program aimed at reducing energy intensity and the use of renewable sources in public buildings with the code PSK-SIEA-002 -2023-DV-EFRR – 28th evaluation round.

SIEA states in its report that as of 30 August 2024, 682 applications had already been submitted within this call. The call remains open.

You can read more HERE.

■     SIEA informs about the start of receiving applications for a grant for quickly implementable energy measures

On 19 August 2024, SIEA announced on its website that it has started accepting applications for support for quickly implementable energy measures to reduce consumption (call code 19/02-26/01).

SIEA states that state administration bodies, territorial units and other entities of public administration can apply for support, while several public buildings can be the subject of one application for a grant.

As part of the aforementioned call, applicants can apply for financial resources, e.g. to replace windows and exterior doors, to insulate the roof or floor of an unheated attic, it will also be possible to modernize lighting, install thermostatic heads or valves, or solar collectors.

We informed you more about the call in question in the monitoring for the month of July 2024.

The call was closed on 13 September 2024. After this date, it is not possible to submit requests for the provision of funds from the mechanism within the scope of the call in question.

You can find more information about the call HERE.

The SIEA report on the start of accepting application for a grant is available HERE.

■     SEPS informs about the modification of the pricing methodology within the aFRR platform (PICASSO)

The company Slovenská elektrizačná prenosová sústava, a.s. (hereinafter referred to as "SEPS") informed on its website on 21 August 2024 that in accordance with ACER decision no. 9/2024 there was a modification of the pricing methodology within the aFRR platform (PICASSO), which was also reflected in the modification of the algorithm of the optimization cycle.

At the same time, SEPS informed about the approval of the update of the implementation framework by ACER decision no. 8/2024. The change in question should concern the introduction of the possibility of using the so-called "elastic demand" for the PICASSO project.

ACER decision no. 9/2024 is available at this link.

ACER decision no. 8/2024 is available at this link.

More information is available HERE.

■     ZSD informs about comments on proposals for changes and additions to the operating rules

On the website of Západoslovenská distribučná, a.s. ("ZSD"), a notice was published on 9 September 2024 on comments on proposed changes and additions to the ZSD operating rules.

The public consultation takes place until 20 September 2024 inclusive.

The proposal for changes and additions to the operating rules of the ZSD is available at this link.

You can comment on the proposed changes and additions to the operating rules of the ZSD at this link.

■     SSD informs about the start of a public consultation on the draft operating rules

On the website of Stredoslovenská distribučná, a.s. ("SSD"), information was published about the start of a public consultation on the proposal to change the operating rules of SSD.

The public consultation started on 30 August 2024, and the last day for sending comments was 12 September 2024 (inclusive).

It was possible to submit comments on the document in question after registering on the SSD website.

The draft operating rules of the SSD is available at this link.

You can read more detailed information HERE.

■     VSD informs about the start of a public consultation on changes to the operating rules

The company Východoslovenská distribučná, a.s. ("VSD") published a notice on the start of a public consultation on changes to its operating rules.

The public consultation takes place from 4 September 2024 to 18 September 2024.

The draft VSD operating rules is available after logging in on the VSD website.

You can download the monitoring for the month of August 2024 in PDF format here.

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Legal notice

The information provided to the subscriber as part of the monitoring of energy legislation is not a source of legally binding legislation, as only the collection of laws of the Slovak Republic contains the legally binding wording of the legislation in terms of the legal code of the Slovak Republic. The information provided to the subscriber is only informative and does not replace legal service pursuant to the Act no. 586/2003 Coll. on advocacy. The law firm POLÁČEK & PARTNERS s. r. o. is not responsible for the completeness and accuracy of the information provided in the energy legislation monitoring. In case of questions regarding the information provided to the subscriber, the subscriber can ask the law firm POLÁČEK & PARTNERS s. r. o. for the provision of legal services for this purpose.