Five Energy Law Changes for 2026

The end of 2025 in the energy sector was marked by major legislative changes. The key document was the amendment to Act No. 251/2012 Coll. on Energy (published as Act No. 259/2025 Coll.).

The amendment was adopted mainly due to the need to transpose European legislation in the area of revising the current setting of the internal electricity market in the European Union (”EU”) in the area of support for energy from renewable sources (“RES”), in the area of the internal market for natural gas, renewable gases, and hydrogen, and in the area of methane emissions.

A substantial part of the amendment addresses issues related to the hydrogen economy. It regulates the certification of hydrogen transport network operators and the rules governing the functioning of the internal hydrogen market. However, this topic is not addressed in detail in this article.

Instead, we have selected 5 other key changes that have the potential to significantly impact the energy market and its operation in practice throughout 2026.

News on electricity sharing

Electricity sharing was incorporated into the Slovak law in 2022. The recent amendment represents the most substantial change to this regulation to date. While certain existing barriers have been removed, business activities in this area have become more strictly regulated.

It remains the case that only entities with the status of an active consumer or an energy community are entitled to share electricity.

However, the definition of electricity sharing itself has been amended to expressly allow sharing to be carried out in return for remuneration. The explanatory memorandum to the amendment even acknowledges that, in some cases, electricity sharing may overlap in substance with electricity supply.

While the previous legal framework did not explicitly prohibit remuneration for electricity sharing, it was unclear whether such remuneration could be agreed in the same manner as in electricity supply contracts. This created certain limitations for the development of remuneration models for electricity sharing.

In order for individual active consumers to share the electricity they generate, it is necessary to create a so-called sharing group to which they will belong via the OKTE web portal.

At the same time, the former barrier preventing electricity sharing across different balancing groups has been removed. In practice, sharing had previously been possible only between parties using the same electricity supplier. However, the amendment removed this restriction and explicitly states that consumption points and injection points assigned to one sharing group may be assigned to different balancing groups. Electricity sharing may therefore take place regardless of the identity of the supplier.

The amendment also introduced the concept of a sharing group administrator – a person authorized to act on behalf of the members of the sharing group. This administrator is responsible for registering consumption and injection points within the sharing group.

Another new market participant is a sharing organizer. While the sharing group administrator performs only basic tasks, the role of the sharing organizer is considerably broader. Its primary task is to facilitate electricity sharing. The law explicitly states that an active consumer or energy community may share electricity directly or through the sharing organizer.

Moreover, the law assumes that the sharing organizer can provide active consumers with the installation or operation of RES electricity generation facilities or electricity storage facilities, ensure their maintenance, provide advice on management or flexibility provision, etc.

The activity of the sharing organizer qualifies as an energy business activity and requires obtaining confirmation of the fulfillment of the notification obligation.

The contracts on the basis of which the sharing organizer will operate are regulated by the provisions of the Energy Act. The Act emphasizes information obligations towards electricity consumers as well as other mechanisms designed to protect them in these relationships. In many respects, this regulation resembles the obligations that electricity suppliers have towards their consumers.

Flexible connection becomes available

Based on EU law ^[1], the amendment introduces the concept of so-called flexible connection with effect from 1 January 2026.

Flexible connection is now available not only for the distribution system (regional or local), but also for connection to the transmission system.

A flexible connection is defined as the connection of electricity generation facilities or electricity storage facilities to the system that allows limitation and regulation of electricity supply to the system or electricity consumption from the system. ^[2]

The purpose of the flexible connection is to enable system connection even in areas with limited or zero available capacity. Flexible connection thus represents a form of “sub-category” of standard connection.

Under a flexible connection agreement and subject to agreed conditions, the relevant system operator is entitled to restrict or regulate electricity supply into the system or electricity consumption from it.

When assessing an application for connection to the system, the relevant system operator will also have to proceed in accordance with the new provisions of Section 19(13) and (14) of the Energy Act and assess whether, if proper connection is not possible, at least a flexible connection can be implemented.

Flexible connection is designed as a temporary solution for situations where the system in a given area is not yet sufficiently prepared for connecting new entities. Nevertheless, system operators remain obliged to further develop their system and take concrete steps to replace flexible connection with standard connection once statutory conditions are met.

New type of fixed-price electricity supply contract

The turbulent years in the energy sector have resulted in the emergence of several contractual mechanisms on the market that allow for various ways of changing and adjusting the price of electricity, which was primarily set as fixed in the contract.

While these mechanisms protected suppliers against market volatility, consumers lacked price stability.

European legislation responded to this issue, and the amendment introduced a new category of supply contracts ^[3] – fixed-term, fixed-price contract.

The Energy Act thus added a definition of new types of contracts as of 1 January 2026, namely (i) a fixed-term, fixed-price electricity supply contract ^[4] and (ii) a fixed-term, fixed-price combined electricity supply contract ^[5] (“fixed-price contract”).

The main feature of this contract is that the price for the electricity supplied is agreed at a fixed rate, and this price, as well as other agreed terms and conditions, cannot be changed for the entire duration of the electricity supply commitment.

Fixed-price contract must not contain any provision ^[6] allowing the supplier to change the price of electricity supply, the contractual terms and conditions of electricity supply, or to terminate the contract even without a breach of contract on the part of the consumer.

Practical challenges may arise from the fact that the law does not precisely define the term “fixed-price”. This may lead to disputes as to whether a fixed price means only a constant price per MWh consumed or also a constant formula for calculating the price, or how to assess price “surcharges” for non-compliance with consumption tolerance (e.g., in the form of a fee/penalty for under-consumption and over-consumption) in this context.

Changes for active consumers and local source

The concept of an “active consumer” was used quite often in the energy sector due to its special status and the advantages granted to it by law. As mentioned above, an active consumer has, for example, the right to share electricity. At the same time, only an active consumer had the right to operate a local source.

However, the previous definition of active consumer caused practical difficulties.

An active consumer was defined as a final consumer or group of jointly acting final consumers who consume or store electricity generated in their own facilities, supply self-generated electricity, or provide flexibility, provided these activities did not constitute their main business activity.

The fact that these activities were not to constitute the main economic activity was a legitimate requirement stemming from EU law.

However, it was controversial that the law considered the activities in question to be the “main business activity” if the total income from them for the last accounting period exceeded the income from any other business activity.

The amendment has softened this strict criterion. Under the new rules, income from electricity sharing has been explicitly added to the energy activities whose income is taken into account, but it is sufficient that the income from these activities in the last accounting period does not exceed 20% of the total income from other business activities in the last accounting period.

In addition, the amendment brought about a change that may seem minor at first glance, but is in fact fundamental for local sources. Originally, only active consumers could be electricity producers in local sources. However, the amendment abolished this condition. Under the new rules, the producer of electricity in a local source can be any (not only active) electricity consumer who has concluded a contract with the distribution system operator for the connection of a local source.

This is expected to broaden the range of entities interested in the local source.

Obligation of distributors to publish data on connection to systems

One of the aims of the amendment was to increase transparency regarding connection opportunities within the Slovak distribution system.

The legislation previously imposed several information obligations on regional distribution system operators.

However, as of 1 January 2026, these were supplemented so that operators of regional and local distribution systems are (among other things) required to publish (i) data on available capacity in the distribution system, (ii) the calculation of this available capacity, (iii) information on the conditions for reserving distribution capacity, and (iv) information on the submission of connection requests and the conditions for their submission.

At the same time, distribution system operators are required to publish on their website a map or table containing at least the following information on the possibilities of connecting to the distribution system:

• for the EHV and HV voltage levels, data on the available capacity of electrical substations with EHV to HV transformation in the distribution system operated by them,
• for the LV voltage level, data on the available capacity of electrical substations with HV to LV transformation in the distribution system operated by them,
• definition of electrical substations with EHV to HV transformation, where connection to the HV system is only possible on the basis of a flexible connection agreement specifying the conditions for flexible connection. ^[7]

Regional distribution system operators must publish and update these data at least once every three months, with updates effective as of the first day of each calendar quarter.

Local distribution system operators are subject to a less stringent regime. They must publish these data at least once per year, as of 1 January of a calendar year.

In practice, it may be debatable how system operators will approach individual values. The legal regulation contains certain terms that can be interpreted in different ways. At the same time, it is not clearly defined how the calculation of available capacity should look like.

Although there is still room for improvement in our regulations, the changes brought about by the amendment are a step in the right direction. Once implemented, they may open up new opportunities for business in the energy sector.

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^[1] According to the explanatory memorandum, the legal regulation of flexible connection is based on the wording of Directive (EU) 2024/1711, which amended Directive (EU) 2019/944.

^[2] Section 2(b)(46) of the Energy Act.

^[3] Following Article 2(15a) of EU Directive 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity, as amended by Directive (EU) 2024/1711, which defines the term “fixed-term, fixed-price electricity supply contract” at the EU law level.

^[4] Section 26(25) of the Energy Act.

^[5] Section 26(26) of the Energy Act.

^[6] See Section 17c(3) of the Energy Act. 

^[7] Section 31(16) in connection with Section 17 of the Energy Act.