Operator of a power plant in Czechia's Česká Lípa region does not have to repay support, Supreme Administrative Court confirms

The company operating a solar power plant in the Česká Lípa region does not have to repay the state one million koruna, the Supreme Administrative Court has confirmed. The State Energy Inspectorate considered the sum to be support paid unlawfully, to which the plant was not entitled. However, according to the ruling available on the court's notice board, the inspectorate erred by applying to a situation dating from the turn of 2009 and 2010 the wording of the Act on Supported Energy Sources that did not take effect until 2022.

“The principle of the predictability of law and legal certainty means that those subject to legal rules legitimately expect the legal system not to have retroactive effects and that they will be able to adapt their conduct to the law in force,” the ruling states.

The power plant was completed in December 2009. Before the end of the year, the operator applied to connect it to the distribution grid. This was achieved only in January 2010, when the operator also signed an agreement with ČEZ Prodej to receive support for electricity generation, under the more favourable terms for the plant that applied in 2009.

It was only some time later that the energy inspectorate concluded that the power plant was invoicing prices and receiving support at the wrong level because it had been commissioned in 2010.

“The effort to recover support received unlawfully is understandable. However, this burden cannot simply be shifted to businesses and this course of action justified by the public interest. Taken to its logical extreme, this would make it possible to justify true retroactivity in almost every area of public administration, since the very essence of public administration’s activities and mission is to protect the public interest,” Justice Vojtěch Šimíček said.

“The public interest undoubtedly also includes upholding the fundamental principles of the rule of law, including the stability of the legal system, its predictability, legal certainty and the prohibition of retroactivity,” Šimíček added.