The cabinet decided on Thursday to set up a national power distribution company (SODO). The company will get a license to manage the network of the current five power distributors and will be headquartered in Maribor, the Economy Ministry wrote in a press release.
The establishment of the operator was necessitated by the EU rules for regulating the common electricity market. The rules call for complete liberalisation by 1 July and demand that power production and distribution may not be carried out by the same company. According to the energy act, the government can determine the power distributor for a maximum of 50 years. The company is independent in concluding deals of up to EUR 4m and needs government approval for deals over that amount. Its start-up capital is EUR 7,500.