The electricity market in Slovakia falls within the CENTREL region, which, in addition to Slovakia, also includes Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Slovak power plants account for about 8% of the installed capacity within the region, and annually supply about 7% of the total electricity production within CENTREL.
Production and consumption of electricity in Slovakia (in GWh)
In the Slovak Republic, the production and sale of electricity at the wholesale level were liberalized in 2005, so the wholesale price of electricity is not regulated. Prices of imported or exported electricity are also set on the basis of bilateral contracts between the customer and the supplier, while since January 2005 there are no limits on the volumes of electricity that can be delivered beyond the boundaries of the defined market, i.e. beyond the Slovak transmission system.
At the national level, Slovenské elektrárne is the largest electricity producer with a share of 66%. They are the main supplier to the three largest regional distribution companies (ZSE, SSE and VSE) and also supply large commercial (industrial) customers. Slovenské elektrárne is the main supplier of support services in the electricity sector in Slovakia.
Slovenské elektrárne does not operate in the transmission or distribution of electricity. Since 2009, however, our wholly-owned subsidiary Slovenské elektrárne - energetické služby, s.r.o. (formerly SE Predaj)
has been operating on the Slovak market, which in the early days focused mainly on supplying electricity to large corporate customers. In 2011, it expanded its supplies to the small business and household segments, and now also supplies natural gas and energy efficiency services to its customers.
The three largest distribution companies, Západoslovenská energetika (ZSE), Stredoslovenská energetika (SSE) and Východoslovenská energetika (VSE), are majority (51%) controlled by the state, but minority shareholdings and managerial control are exercised by foreign shareholders, i.e. companies such as Germany's E.ON, Czechoslovak Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH) or Germany's RWE Group.
In the gas segment, the natural monopoly is Slovenský plynárenský priemysel, a.s.
(SPP) and its 100 % subsidiaries Eustream (for gas transport) and SPP - distribúcia, a.s. (for distribution). In 2002, the Slovak Government sold 49% of the shares and managerial control of SPP to the Slovak Gas Holding B.V. consortium, consisting of E.ON Ruhrgas and GdF SUEZ. They sold this share to EPH Holding in 2013. The remaining 51% of shares remained in the hands of the state.
