On 11 March 2025, the amendment known as “Lex Gas”, which aims to facilitate the construction of steam power plants in the Czech Republic, passed its second reading in the Chamber of Deputies. If approved, the amendment will mainly involve changes to the Energy Act¹ and the so-called Line Act². However, in view of the two dozen amendments that have been raised, it may also affect other regulations.

Some time ago, we informed you about the amendment proposal of the Minister of Industry and Trade Lukáš Vlček, which supplements the current wording also by amending Act No. 406/2000 Coll. about energy management in relation to the so-called “power wasters”, i.e. devices that are supposed to consume electricity at times when there is a surplus of electricity, which means practically that they are supposed to supply negative flexibility. According to Lukáš Vlček’s proposal, providers of support services and flexibility would not be allowed to use electrical equipment to provide these services without ensuring the efficient reuse of the electricity consumed by that equipment. The absolute prohibition of such devices is attempted to be mitigated by Jan Bures’ amendment, which would allow an exemption for devices that had already been connected to the transmission or distribution system on the effective date of the amendment. This amendment should therefore exclude the possible retroactive effect of the amendment on „power wasters“ .

We further confirm that an amendment has been submitted to address the impact of the amendment to the Energy Act known as “LEX RES III”, which was signed by the President of the Czech Republic on 13 March 2025 and is currently awaiting promulgation in the Collection of Laws, which introduces a self-assessment of the adequacy of the support granted to solar electricity generators put into operation between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2010 with an aggregate installed capacity of 30 kW or more. As announced, it is proposed to increase the threshold from 30 kW to 145 kW in order to reduce the number of generating plants concerned and to avoid the administrative burden of carrying out the self-assessment on, for example, small-scale PV plants set up on the roofs of municipal offices or kindergartens.

At first glance, the scope of the amendment is small, but its significance is definitely substantial.The amendment is intended to specify how producers and operators of electricity storage facilities in particular will participate in the reimbursement of the transmission system operator’s or distribution system operator’s justified costs associated with the connection of their production or storage facility. Their share is to be determined according to the amount of power or input required and they have to pay a lump sum, part of which is non-refundable even if the generation/storage facility is ultimately not connected. Everyone has to take into account that even if they do not implement their plan, they will be paying for “futile reservation of power or capacity”.

The amendments aimed at speeding up and facilitating the authorisation of wind farms can undoubtedly be considered interesting, due to the need to speed up their construction in order to ensure the resource adequacy of electricity production in the coming years. The proposed amendment aims to simplify the authorisation of sets of four or more wind farms by applying to them a limited selection of provisions governing the regime for the authorisation of energy security structures. On the other hand, another amendment introduces a charge on wind power generation. This charge would affect the operators of wind farms with an installed capacity of more than 1 MW that is connected to the grid after 1 January 2026 and would be a revenue for the budget of the municipality in whose territory the wind farm is located. The maximum rate of the fee should be CZK 100 per installed kilowatt, but the municipality would be entitled to set a lower rate by a municipal ordinance.

In addition to the above, amendments which are not directly related to the subject of the proposed amendment were also submitted. The question is whether the above and other proposed amendments will be approved by the Chamber of Deputies in the third reading and then be adopted by the Senate. The next parliamentary discussion of the amendment in the Chamber of Deputies is possible at the end of March, from 27 March 2025 to be precise. The coming into effect of the amendment “Lex Gas” is expected on 1 August 2025 at the earliest. We will of course continue to keep you informed about further developments on this topic.

¹ Act No. 458/2000 Coll., on the conditions of business and the exercise of state administration in the energy sectors and on amendments to certain acts (Energy Act)

² Act No. 416/2009 Coll., on accelerating the construction of strategically important infrastructure

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