official information server of the city of Pilsen

The price of heat supplied to households in Pilsen by the Plzeňská teplárenská company will most likely increase in 2024. The proposal envisages a price increase of CZK 161.30/GJ without VAT. It was agreed upon by both shareholders, i.e. the city of Pilsen as the majority owner and the company EP Infrastructure, a.s. as the owner with a minority share. Final approval requires the consent of the Plzeňská teplárenská general meeting, which will be held on November 28, 2023.

“While originally the board of directors of Plzeňská teplárenská proposed to increase the price of heat for the year 2024 for residents by CZK 240 per GJ without VAT, which is an increase of about 40 percent, the new agreement with the second shareholder provides for an increase of (28.3 percent of the average price of heat in Pilsen) 161.30 CZK/GJ without VAT,” explained the councilor of the city of Pilsen Owned Golwhich is in charge of property management and management of property holdings of the city of Pilsen.

“We managed to reduce the price increase by about a third compared to the original proposal. The negotiations were very tough, but constructive. Our goal is for Pilsen to continue to have the best heat price in the Czech Republic,” responded the mayor Roman Zarzycky. Pilsen residents pay 626.67 CZK/GJ with VAT for heat from the Plzeňská teplárenská in 2023, i.e. 569.34 CZK/GJ without VAT.

According to Plzeňská teplárenská, there are several reasons for the price increase. The heat commodity is in a deep loss, there was also the cancellation of significant state subsidies for the heating industry, which means a loss of hundreds of millions of crowns for the Pilsen heating plant. According to the heating plant, it is also necessary to continue the decarbonization process, which requires a total investment of around seven billion crowns in the equipment of the Pilsen heating plant.

The price of heat from Plzeňská teplárenská remains the lowest in the Czech Republic for a long time, for example, in 2023 it averaged around 600 crowns per GJ, while the national average was around 1200 CZK per GJ. At the same time, there was no significant price increase for approximately 54,000 households in Pilsen last year, with the price of heat from the Pilsen heating plant moving only up to five percent.

Text: Eva Barborková