Slovakia’s primary natural gas utility, SPP, asked the Regulatory Office for Network Industries (ÚRSO) for an average 17-percent increase in natural gas prices for households in a request sent on June 13, the SITA newswire reported.
"The reason behind the proposed adjustment of prices is that the company has not been given space to mirror its real costs in prices since the start of this year and also the absence of a correction factor in the regulation framework. According to our latest calculation, SPP faces the threat of a considerable loss of several tens of millions of euros in the regulated segment," SPP spokesman Peter Bednár told SITA on June 27.
SPP stated that the regulator has failed to fully take into consideration SPP’s costs in the prices it approved last year and this year.
"This caused a further artificial fall in the regulated price of gas," Bednár stated, as quoted by SITA. The spokesman also said SPP does not understand why the regulatory authority refuses to include the costs of gas storage in the price to consumers. The utility asserted that the regulator also based its calculation of prices for this year on unrealistic expectations of the exchange rate between the US dollar and the euro and this decreased the regulated price of natural gas, according to Bendár.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
