New legislation

In the last months, three amendments to laws and decrees related to underground gas storage entered into force.

On June 27, 2022, an amendment to the Energy Act (No. 176/2022 Coll.) entered into force, which introduces the obligation to use reserved firm storage capacity and the procedure for non-use of the storage capacity. The minimum required amount of stored gas for selected time periods during the storage year is determined by Decree No. 344/2012 Coll. on states of emergency in the gas industry and the safety standards on gas supply, which was also amended with the effectiveness as of the August 1st 2022.

Other points of the amendment to the Energy Act relating to gas storage are, for example:
• the authority of the Energy Regulatory Office to decide on the regulation of gas storage service price for the storage year beginning as of the April 1st 2023
• mandatory reporting, where the UGS operator will be obliged to inform the Ministry and the ERO of the amount of stored gas of each storage user.

At the same time an amendment to Decree No. 349/2015 Coll. on Gas Market Rules entered into force as of the August 1st 2022, which, among other things, regulates the procedure for reserving unutilized storage capacity or introduces the possibility of gas transfers within a storage facility between the market participants and a bank or Administration of State Material Reserves.

The full text of the new legislation is published on our website.