The energy company ČEZ Teplárenská will increase the price of heat from power plants and heating plants by an average of 20 percent next year, which will average around CZK 123 per month. The increase in prices is mainly due to higher costs for allowances and production, ČEZ said.
Due to rising prices, most of the Czech thermal power plants are planning to increase their prices, in many cases to twice the current price. According to the Heating Association, the price increase at individual heat suppliers will affect almost four million customers of heating plants in the Czech Republic.
ČEZ Teplárenská supplies approximately 7,500 customer points, including over 132,000 households, non-residential premises, and dozens of industrial enterprises, hospitals, schools, and other institutions.
The increase in heat prices is mainly due to rising costs. These include increases in the price of fuel, materials, repairs, and carbon dioxide emission allowances. According to ČEZ, the cost of producing heat or buying it from suppliers accounts for approximately 80 percent of the price, and the total amount depends on the source of the heat and the fuel used to produce it.
Currently, the average price of heat for end customers of ČEZ Teplárenská is around CZK 640 per gigajoule (GJ) per month, which is about ten percent less than the average market price, according to the company. The increase for next year will average 123 crowns per month. For the owner of a standard 3+1 flat with 25 GJ of heat consumption per year, this will mean an increase of about CZK 256 per month or CZK 3,074 more per year.
ČEZ Teplárenská buys most of the heat, around 78 percent, for its customers from lignite sources. Almost 9.5 percent of the company’s heat is produced from biomass, 8.5 percent from hard coal, and about 4 percent from gas. In this context, CEZ assures its customers that coal and biomass supplies are secured from stable suppliers, so there is no risk of any shortages.
“There are still many moving factors in play that can significantly affect heating prices next year. We are currently discussing whether it would be possible, for example, to reduce the price of hard coal from state-owned OKD for heating plants. Negotiations are still underway on temporary transformation support for heat and the like,” Hájek added. According to him, it will become more apparent in the coming weeks.