Regulatory Office for Network Industries (URSO) has succeeded in stirring up the calm level of business in the electricity sector. The regulator has come up with a new calculation of the imbalance of settlement entities. It promises to tap the fingers of all speculators, as after the new imbalance will no longer be a business. Consequently, there should be room to reduce electricity prices not only for Slovak households, but also for companies. Some employers are horrified by the actions of the Office. They speak of violations of European Union (EU) rules, competition principles and the disruption of a stable business environment. The Slovak Electricity Transmission System (SEPS), as one of the main players in the „imbalance business“, is trying to explain its role in the whole complex system, which is full of hoaxes.
In order to function properly, the electricity system must be stable. Its stability is ensured by the SEPS dispatching and the contracted providers of so-called support services (SPS). Imbalance is the difference between planned and actual electricity consumption or generation. It certainly does not constitute a form of system aid according to SEPS. Imbalance prices arise as a result of a well-defined clearing process involving imbalance magnitudes and volumes and prices of regulating electricity procured by SEPS. They are therefore not fixed. „Nor are they different for suppliers and manufacturers. The imbalance clearing price for the first six months of 2025 ranged from – EUR 8,000 per megawatt-hour to more than EUR 5,000 per megawatt-hour,“ SEPS spokeswoman Sandra Cicova Kotzigova told SITA agency.. The calculation of imbalances, settlement and invoicing are the responsibility of OKTE, an independent market operator. For the purchase of ancillary services, SEPS is guided by the applicable decision of the TSO for the period in question, by which the TSO sets the maximum allowable costs for ensuring the availability of the SPS. The eligible (regulated) costs for PpS set by the DSO decision and the actual costs incurred by SEPS have been decreasing over the last three years.
According to its statements, the regulator wants to crack down on traders who deliberately cause imbalances in the power system in order to abuse the current situation regarding the use of the PICASSO and MARI platform mechanism introduced by the European Union. Imbalance should thus no longer be a business, according to the regulatory authority. URSO has already decided to introduce changes in the calculation of the imbalance of settlement entities from September. This is despite a lot of criticism from companies. „The Authority’s decision is the result of a series of consultations with SEPS and the market organiser OKTE,“ said URSO spokesman Radoslav Igaz. According to him, the main objective of the URSO measure is to reduce the motivation for speculative behaviour of some market participants, which may ultimately threaten the stability of the Slovak electricity system.
According to National Union of Employers (RUZ), the URSO proposal violates binding European rules. The abolition of the possibility to collect payment for system assistance creates inequality between market participants, restricts competition and violates competition rules. Such a step may be qualified as an abuse of OKTE’s dominant position and result in intervention by the Slovak Antimonopoly Office or the European Commission.
