Prague will choose the electricity supply for the first half of the year by the end of the year
Update: 21/12/2022 13:17
Issued by: 12/21/2022, 12:14 p.m
Prague – In December, Prague will select an electricity supplier for the municipality and its 198 contributory organizations for the first half of next year, by approaching selected companies in the form of a so-called non-publicized negotiation process (JŘBÚ). The mayor’s deputy Jana Plamínková (STAN) said this to journalists after an extraordinary meeting of city councillors. The city originally issued a tender, in which the company PRE was successful, but the representatives refused to approve the selection last week.
Schools, theaters, galleries, homes for children and youth or facilities for the elderly are among the nearly two hundred city organizations that found themselves without power without resolving the situation. The new selection will once again be in charge of the contribution organization of the municipality of Prague, the Community of Renewable Energy (PSOE). The councilors canceled the original tender due to the council’s decision on Monday. According to Plamínková, no one expected the situation to arise, because the original material was approved by all parties in the council, except for the council. “We expected it to pass smoothly through the council, but unfortunately it didn’t because there was one single vote missing,” she said today.
According to its director Jaroslav Klusák, PSOE wants to select a supplier by December 27, so electricity should be secured for the first half of the year after the end of the current contract with PRE at the end of the year. PRE will be one of the companies approached by the JŘBÚ, added the director. Plamínková further stated that the PSOE will start preparing for the next standard period of open competition for suppliers in January.
While originally the city was supposed to purchase electricity using the so-called forward method, i.e. at the current price, now, according to Plamínková, it will buy at the spot price at a given time. “We’re hoping it will be cheaper,” the deputy said. The price ceiling set by the government will apply to purchases throughout the next year.
According to Martin Pujan from the VSP law office, with whom the municipality consulted the next procedure, the selection of a supplier in the form of the JŘBÚ is in accordance with the methodology of the Antimonopoly Office and the Ministries for Regional Development and Industry and Trade. It was created because other municipalities also found themselves in a similar situation before the end of the year, where they do not have a competitive electricity supplier.
The intention to tender for an electricity supplier was approved by city councilors this September. At that time, due to high energy prices, the estimated price of the tender was set at approximately 1.32 billion crowns. In October, the government decided on the maximum consumption of electricity, which is why the amount rose to 510 million crowns. Of this, 150 million crowns went to electricity collection points managed by the municipality and 360 million crowns to contribution organizations. The amount was an estimate, as the final price is determined by the purchase on the stock exchange. For example, ANO representative Ondřej Prokop criticized the original competition, according to which the thirty percent margin for PRE was too high and the conditions for the city were disadvantaged.