The Ministry will distribute 17 billion between the heating plants, they will have to use the subsidies to reduce heat prices — ČT24 — Czech Television
“We are aware that the increase in energy prices is also reflected in the prices of heat supplies to households. That’s why we’re coming up with a new program in which heating plants can apply for support so that they don’t pass on price increases to customers,” Jozef Síkela (for STAN) explained to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
This year, according to the ministry, also due to Russian aggression in Ukraine, the number of price locations where the price of heat rose above one thousand kroner per gigajoule (GJ) without VAT increased fundamentally. Between February and December, their number increased by 107 to a total of 345 locations.
MPO plans to announce at least two calls in the program. One from the beginning of January and the other from February. Subsidies will depend on eligible expenses, which will be part of the costs of producing supplied heat during this year and the whole of next year and their increase against 2021. The Ministry, together with the Office for the Protection of Economic Competition, will notify the European Commission of the subsidy program during January.
The heating association appreciated that the government approved the program, especially in a situation where, even after a year, the European Commission has not been able to draw attention to the temporary transformation support for heat in the Act on Supported Energy Sources.
“However, the program is general and the benefit to customers will be quantified when specific calls for subsidy applications are available. All we know so far is that the support will not apply to the production of heat from gas in 2023, as the gas price cap for heat production already applies in that year. However, even heating plants producing heat from gas should have been entitled to support for February to December of this year,” said the director of the association, Martin Hájek.