Hungarian Minister of Energy Csaba Lantos said that Hungarian households which consume less than the average level will not pay higher price for natural gas, electricity and districts heating in 2023 as well.
Minister Lantos said that protecting the country’s energy sovereignty is one of the most important goals of Hungary’s energy policy. As energy prices rose to extreme levels last year, Hungarian Government was forced to reconsider its price caps that have been in place for almost a decade, which were putting a huge burden on state budget.
In July, the Government announced that it will abolish caps on gas and electricity prices for households that consume over the average level, but the party maintained the system by protecting those consumers who kept their energy bills under the average consumption level. According to Minister Lantos, this mechanism will stay in place in 2023 as well.
He said that Hungary imports 75 % of its energy, but one of the main objectives of the Government is to increase local energy production. He added that the role of natural gas in the domestic energy mix will be reduced, while the share of renewable energy sources will be increased, storage capacities will be expanded and the infrastructure will be developed to meet the growing demand for electricity.
Although in long-term Hungary plans to rely less on natural gas, the country made several steps recently to increase domestic production. Earlier this week, the first well at the gas field in the Sarkad region was put into operation. The overall goal of Hungary is to increase domestic gas production from 1.5 billion cubic meters to 2 billion cubic meters a year.
Minister Lantos also confirmed that Hungary will build three large combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants of around 500 MW by 2028, one near coal-fired Matra power plant and two in Tiszaujvaros. He also emphasized the importance of moving forward in diversification announcing that Hungary would like to build the Slovenian interconnector on the gas market, and potentially expand the capacity of already existing interconnectors.
