ERÚ to publish audit of setting solar power prices by end-Feb

Prague, Feb 17 (CTK) - The Energy Regulatory Office (ERU) will publish an audit of setting the purchasing prices of solar power under which former ERU staff are said to have acted at variance with law by the end of February, ERU chairwoman Alena Vitaskova said on Czech Television (CT) Sunday.

The regulator already has the auditor's consent to publish the document and will yet discuss it with the state attorney's office, Vitaskova said in the discussion programme Questions of Vaclav Moravec.

The audit found that the purchase prices of energy from solar power plants had been set in a non-transparent manner between 2005 and 2011. The ERU said the losses can be in the order of tens of billions of crowns. It asked the state attorney's office to investigate the matter.

Distributing companies have to buy solar power at much higher prices than the price at which they sell the power. The difference is reflected in the final price of electricity.

Vitaskova said that an average household paid Kc300 for solar power in its annual electricity bill back in 2006, while this year it will be over Kc3,000.

A company spent over Kc2.3m on average for the purpose in 2006 and this year it will be up to Kc65m.

The government will allocate from the state budget over Kc11bn this year.

Over 3,100 photovoltaic power plants got a subsidy of more than Kc280,000 in the country in 2011, and another almost 10,000 sources received a smaller support, the ERU said on its website Sunday.

The second largest Czech solar plant Nova Ves-Veprek, which has an unknown owner, was granted the biggest support of over Kc500m in 2011. It had an output of 33 MW, now its output is two MW higher.

The largest Czech photovoltaic facility Ralsko with the installed capacity of over 38 MW, which is owned by CEZ, got a support of almost Kc478m in 2011.

Around 650 solar plants got support exceeding Kc10m in 2011. Some of the firms own more photovoltaic systems. Ren Power CZ, for instance, owns Zasova and Barice-Velke Tesany facilities and it received around Kc237m in support for both plants.

The ERU list does not comprise the names of solar plants with support lower than Kc280,000 a year. It said their number reached 9,924, the installed capacity was 68,230 kW and total support topped Kc817m.

Vitaskova said those were mainly owners of small plants on the roofs of single-family houses.

Support had also been earmarked for hydroelectric and wind power plants, facilities generating energy by burning biomass or those using biogas and mine gases.

Over 560 co-generation systems producing electricity and heat were granted support in 2011.