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It’s summer, the solar power plants are running at full capacity and the windmills are spinning satisfactorily, yet energy prices have once again touched records this week. On Wednesday, the price of electricity on the Prague PXE exchange rose to historical high 376 euros per megawatt hour and shows no willingness to go down.
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Stock markets continue to panic over gas, fueled by fears of further cutbacks in supplies from Russia. All it takes is for Vladimir Putin to even threaten to cut off imports, and the gas markets are going crazy and electricity is also becoming more expensive. The boom of renewable resources is not visible in the market.
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However, it continues even in the conservative Czech Republic. According to the Solar Association 9,354 solar power plants were installed in the first half of this year. Solar installed power rose by 74.8 megawatts, doubling year-on-year.
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In the Czech energy mix, however, this is still negligible. The installations are small and serve mainly for the investors’ own consumption. “Renewables are still not growing enough to change the price game. This will only change when gas is no longer needed to produce electricity,” sums up the founder of the Amper group and the CO2IN start-up, Jan Palaščák.
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The goal is in sight. The Czechs can get by without their gas power plants, but the Germans can’t. And so gas still determines the price on the exchanges relevant to us and in bilateral contracts.
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The outlook for consumers continues to deteriorate. Head of Pražská plynárenská Martin Pacovský in Forbes he warned this weekthat customers whose fixation ends this year can expect up to a sevenfold increase in gas deposits.
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Centropol’s marketing chief Jiří Matoušek, who continuously recalculates the expected effects of rising wholesale prices on consumers, sent me his latest analysis on Friday. According to him, power electricity (in an optimistic version) without VAT will rise to 7,000 crowns per megawatt hour in the first quarter of next year (against last year’s 1,600 crowns). According to him, the annual electricity costs of a model family of four in a house that heats water with electricity will rise by almost 36,000. The average four-person household, which also heats with electricity, is almost 82,000 more. Her monthly advances will rise by 6,806 crowns compared to last year.
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Gas comes out even more “apocalyptically”. For households in the categories with the highest consumption of up to 45 MWh per year and up to 63 MWh per year, according to Matoušek’s calculations, monthly payments for gas will increase by 8,117, i.e. 10,436 crowns compared to last year.
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Centropol also analyzes the effects of the cost-saving tariff as it is now calculated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade from October 1. In the variant of the energy-saving tariff considered so far and with the planned waiver of fees for renewable sources, the annual costs for a household with electric water heating and heating will be reduced by 15,737 crowns. For gas customers in the two mentioned highest consumer categories, the cost-saving tariff will reduce the annual expenditure by almost 13 thousand crowns. If the customer combines the discounts provided for electricity and gas, he can save a maximum of 30,000 crowns at one point of purchase according to the proposed parameters.
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The government promises to provide a cost-saving tariff from October 1, suppliers will start deducting the discount from clients’ monthly advances. “Practically, this means that households will use up the energy-saving tariff before the highest prices hit, according to our predictions. From January, the state will help households only by waiving fees for renewable resources,” Matoušek points out in his comments on his calculations. And he advises clients not to use the government discount at a time when they may not need it urgently, but to create a cushion from it for worse times, looming after the New Year. All you have to do is save. Both money and energy.
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By the way, this is precisely the main benefit of renewable resources, which Czechs are feverishly building in their houses, factories, halls and farm buildings. Solar panels and wind turbines will not yet (and probably never by themselves) bring down the market price of electricity, even though they produce in the season with very low operating costs. But they will help the owners. With them, they will save energy, which they would have to buy for expensive money. The more produced energy you use on site, the better for your wallet.
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Of course, this is not general advice, not everyone can use it. Today, not even those who could have photovoltaics installed on their roof with a state subsidy – there are no components, no installation capacity, the suppliers promise to install them next summer with a bit of luck.
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Most people have no choice but to save on consumption. After all, hundreds of households are doing it: by the end of the year, there will be 50,000 heat pumps in the country, in large numbers family houses are switching to heating with wood and pellets, warming up, changing windows.
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In apartments, consumers usually have nothing else to do but to change established habits, heat to a lower temperature and only in the rooms where you are. And create a financial reserve. “Don’t go on an expensive vacation,” warns Jiří Matoušek.
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Even so, the government must prepare for the fact that the 30 billion crowns it has allocated so far to support households is not enough. The campaign with a savings tariff will almost certainly have to be repeated next year. After all, the law that introduces it takes this into account.
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