Czech lower house approves faster permitting for gas-fired power plants

An amendment to the Energy Act, nicknamed Lex Gas, is intended to speed up permitting for new combined-cycle gas-fired power plants. The Chamber of Deputies passed it today. Combined-cycle gas-fired power plants should provide sufficient capacity to generate electricity as coal use is expected to decline in the coming years. According to an earlier statement by Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS), this will enable Czechia to avoid dependence on electricity imports from abroad. The proposal could shorten permitting procedures by up to five years.

The amendment was submitted to the Chamber of Deputies by a group of MPs led by Industry Minister Lukáš Vlček (STAN). All 170 MPs present, from across the parliamentary groups, voted in favour. No one voted against.

„I think this is an important step on the road to emissions-free energy. By approving it today, we are speeding up the construction of gas-fired power plants with a capacity of more than 100 megawatts,“ Ivan Adamec (ODS), chair of the Chamber of Deputies’ Economic Affairs Committee, told the Czech News Agency.

He added that the country needs to bridge the period when coal-fired power plants are being retired and nuclear power will not come online until the late 2040s.

The amendment, for example, stipulates that an investor in a gas-fired power plant must state in its application for authorisation the expected selection of a supplier for the plant. The applicant will also have to comply with state security requirements set by the Ministry of Industry throughout the plant’s construction and maintenance.

MPs also narrowed the range of solar power plants built in 2009 and 2010 that will be subject to individual profitability reviews. The reviews will now apply only to plants with a capacity above 145 kilowatts, rather than those above 30 kilowatts. Individual profitability reviews of these solar power plants are one of the tools the government plans to use this year to save money from the budget for renewable energy support. The reviews were added to the act in the previous amendment to the Energy Act despite opposition objections. The Senate wanted to remove them, but MPs overruled it.

MPs also restored the right of Prague, Brno and Ostrava to issue their own building regulations. The Chamber of Deputies inadvertently removed this provision because of a legislative drafting error when approving the previous amendment to the Energy Act. Today, MPs rejected a proposal by STAN MP Jan Berki and others to allow Plzeň and Liberec to issue building regulations as well.

At the proposal of the Economic Affairs Committee, the Chamber of Deputies approved a ban on so-called energy dumpers. These are devices used to dissipate surplus energy, mainly when electricity prices are negative. The Chamber of Deputies rejected a proposal by the Pirates to introduce a fee on wind power plants. The fee would have been based on installed capacity, with the base amount multiplied by a coefficient used for property tax. It would have been paid annually, with the revenue going to the municipality where the wind farm is located.