Amendment to Czech Energy Management Act approved by Chamber of Deputies and Senate

At the Chamber of Deputies session on 10 April 2015, lawmakers also addressed the Senate-reviewed Energy Management Act. The Senate returned the amendment with several comments and sent it back to MPs in an amended form. Unlike the third reading of the Energy Act, the debate proceeded smoothly, and the Senate's proposals were adopted by 128 votes to 1, with 156 lawmakers present.

The main reason for returning the amendment to MPs with proposed changes was Section 7(4)(g), concerning the obligation to install devices measuring thermal energy supply. Installation of metering will now be required only where it is cost-effective. Thanks to the amendment, the installation obligation may be imposed only under the conditions set out in implementing legislation.

The act will now be forwarded to the president, who has 15 days to return it to the Chamber of Deputies. Otherwise, the president will sign it and, following the signatures of the prime minister and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, have it published in the Collection of Laws.

Main changes in the amendment to the Energy Management Act

Mandatory installation of metering

The most criticised change was the mandatory installation of metering. The main criticism was that in some cases installation is pointless and financially unjustifiable. Under Decree No. 237/2014 Coll., homeowners' associations and apartment owners had to equip buildings' internal heating systems with „heat meters“. The reason was to ensure higher energy efficiency, although a meter has no impact on this by itself. Meters will be required only where installation pays off, as stipulated by the decree.

Allocation of heating costs in apartments

Heating costs will now be allocated on the basis of an agreement between apartment owners and tenants. This concerns cases where heat meters do not need to be installed because doing so would be inefficient. The final form of the provision will also be affected by the Act on Services Connected with the Use of Apartments, which follows on from the Energy Management Act.

PENB – Building energy performance certificate and energy audit

The amendment is intended to facilitate the sale of certain apartments and houses built before 1947 that have not undergone major renovation since then. By agreement, an energy performance certificate need not be handed over during a sale.

Large businesses are also subject to another obligation: they must prepare an energy audit every four years. In some cases, its cost can run into millions of koruna. However, the audit should lead to savings that make the overall investment worthwhile.

Opening photograph: novyimpuls.cz