Prague - Next year will bring a "small revolution" in the Czech energy market, said Marek Hatlapatka, an energy analyst for Cyrrus and expert on Czech energy giant CEZ, in an interview with Aktualne.cz.
When asked to describe what is currently happening in the Czech energy market, Hatlapatka said it is a "small energy revolution" that basically consists of CEZ losing its energy market share and influence.
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"The end of (CEZ's) expansion to Central and Southeast Europe is an indisputable fact. After all, one look at Albania is enough, and the situation is not ideal even in many other countries, above all in Southeast Europe. That era is definitely over."
In addition, the European Commission (EC) has accused CEZ of stifling its competition and asked it to sell at least one of its power plants. In the end, CEZ is offering five.
"In some fields (CEZ) already lost its monopoly a long time ago - the sale of electricity to end customers, etc. In some fields, such as electricity production, it still maintains a high share of around 70 percent, which I think can be considered as something close to a monopoly. On the other hand, the expected sale of power plants will lead to a weakening of CEZ's position even in this field," said Hatlapatka.
Hatlapatka said that even though CEZ offers five power plants for sale, it will sell no more than three.
The biggest of the five stations offered for sale is the Pocerady plant. It is the firm's most profitable power station that produces between 10 percent and 11 percent of all electricity generated in the Czech Republic.
"If CEZ sold Pocerady, its market share would drop approximately by the same percentage," said Hatlapatka.
Czech Coal, the "arch-enemy" of CEZ and its key coal supplier, is very interested in acquiring the Pocerady plant. Obviously, CEZ will be trying to avoid this scenario at all costs, even if Czech Coal offers a very reasonable price.
If CEZ does not agree to sell the Pocerady plant to Czech Coal, it may lose the supply of coal from the firm and be forced to offset this drop by increasing the production at the Severoceske doly brown coal mining company, said the expert.
The most likely buyer of the much less profitable Detmarovice black coal plant is BXR Group owned by Czech billionaire Zdenek Bakala, better known as the owner of New World Resources (NWR) Group.
However, if BXR buys the Detmarovice plant, Daniel Kretinsky's Energy and Industry Holding (EPH), which is considered to be relatively close to CEZ, will come out empty-handed, said Hatlapatka. "And this, I think, is not the preferred scenario neither for CEZ nor for EPH."
