As of April 1st, 2022 comes into effect the Amendment to Act no. 309/2009 on the promotion of renewable energy sources and high-efficiency cogeneration and on the amendment of specific laws, is expected to make it easier to connect local resources to the distribution system.

According to the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, the amendment aims to support extensive, but controlled, development of local sources from renewable energy sources, which will be able to install all customer categories, including households up to the maximum reserved capacity of their consumption points and use them primarily for own consumption.

The amendment is also intended to ensure the possibility of supplying excess electricity to the system, while generators will be exempted from paying the tariff for operating the system up to 1 000 MWh of electricity produced and consumed per year. The draft of the Act removes the current limit of the installed capacity of local sources in the amount of 500 kW and another current limit of 10% of the installed capacity of the local source for the supply of excess electricity produced by the local source to the system. The final electricity consumer can thus achieve significant savings not only on the electricity consumed but also on regulatory fees.

The development of local sources could support the decentralization of energy and thus contribute to the greater self-sufficiency of Slovak electricity consumers by reducing the demand for electricity produced from conventional sources. The amendment only removed the legal obstacle to connecting local sources, but the actual connection will also depend on the technical capabilities of the distribution system and will be limited to the maximum reserved capacity of the offtake point.