It could reduce the financial benefits that consumers can achieve thanks to energy communities. The office also proposes double charging for electricity that the energy community would store in a battery, the Slovak Sustainable Energy Association (SAPI) warned on Monday.
In connection with the promotion of the concept of local production and consumption of electricity within the energy communities, it was expected to provide concessions on network charges, SAPI officials said. However, according to them, the office did not accept substantive and professional proposals and does not plan to adjust price regulation in favor of the development of community energy.
On the contrary, it proposes that consumers, which include a community that would like to further store the generated electricity in a battery outside the point of consumption, pay twice the so-called tariff for system services, the association explained. “Today, however, it is only paid for final consumption and not for storage. In practice, this will mean that for energy communities that would also like to have physical batteries, their own electricity will become more expensive by at least a duplicate payment for this tariff,” said SAPI director Ján Karaba.
According to the association, it is essential for the development of community energy that the regulatory authority creates favorable price regulation and considers the planned introduction of a double charge for the use of batteries in energy communities as well. Own sources of energy should be the way to reduce energy costs for households, and in the case of energy communities, households that cannot build their own source could also benefit from them.
Municipalities could also benefit further from energy communities, for example in the case of electricity production on school roofs. “If we disadvantage energy communities from the beginning, which also have a social aspect from this point of view, we will condemn households that cannot afford their own source from a technical or financial point of view to higher energy costs,” concluded Karaba.
The new ÚRSO decree, which affects the profitability and development of energy communities in Slovakia, should currently be in the interdepartmental commenting process.
