The Brno transport company does not yet have a guaranteed supply of electricity or gas for next year. The management of the company is considering that it could buy electricity only for the first quarter, because it could be cheaper later. The company has an electricity supplier, twice no one applied for the gas supply tender, so the company concluded a contract with the stock exchange and communicates about the purchase directly with the broker, according to the director of the transport company Miloš Havránek.
“It worked for us in the long term when we fixed the price. Thanks to this, we now pay CZK 4,800 for one MWh of electricity, while some companies buy at spot prices. We should have purchased the electricity by December 19. Unfortunately, the current price does not reflect the market price. We are in war and the market doesn’t work in it,” said Havránek.
According to him, a systemic solution must be sought at the national or European level. But how fast the solution will be is a question, since the Czechia has had a law since January 1 that waives the fees for renewable energy sources to railway and tram carriers, but the EU has not yet notified it. “It costs us CZK 30 million a year and we are dealing with official slowness,” added Havránek.
He cannot imagine that Brno public transport would not run in January, but he has no idea at what cost it will be. Electricity prices change practically every day and are getting higher and higher. “We are calculating the budget for next year and it just doesn’t work out,” said Havránek.
While he is not worried about a lack of electricity, there may not be enough gas next year if Russia continues to cut its supplies. At the same time, about ten years ago, the transport company bet on the transition of half of the buses to compressed natural gas. The operation of gas buses was significantly cheaper than diesel buses and also more ecological. “I believe that gas will eventually be available, but certainly at significantly higher prices. The current situation is a huge misfortune. Gas could cover the needs for a few more decades before fully clean energy prevails. But the situation will probably never return, so we are deciding what to do with the car park,” said Havránek. The first 12 buses will arrive relatively soon, but the company has 160 of them. And it is practically certain that next year it will not have investments. “When we have it, we will probably buy diesel buses. Even though there is a European directive that de facto prohibits us from buying them,” said Havránek. The company also considered that the buses could run on biogas, but Havránek does not know why this raw material cannot be taken from the Brno wastewater treatment plant.
According to him, it is possible to make small savings in traffic, i.e. to cut some less busy connections, but in the current situation, these are small and do not solve the situation. In the same way, even a “cosmetic” fare increase would not solve it. On the contrary, he thinks that there is a need to have affordable public transport so that people use it sufficiently. “It is still more ecological than a car and more efficient,” added Havránek.
The solution to the gas situation is also the introduction of overhead trolleys on some routes of bus lines, so that partial trolleybuses can be used, but this is a matter for about five years. “We are already working on two projects. The trolleybus should run along Seifertová Street to Majdalenky, another option is to serve Průmyslova Street on Černovická Terrace. And we are examining how the handling lines could be used, maybe trolleybus line 67 could be,” said Havránek.
Another difficulty that the management of the company is dealing with are the demands to increase salaries by roughly ten percent. The company should have the money for a five percent increase. “We have a collective agreement until the end of the year and I believe that we will finally reach an agreement. We are aware that we have to take care of the employees. Not one of the trade unions is behind the call for a strike on September 15. We have 95 percent and maybe more great employees and I believe “that they’ll work for you,” said Havránek. The average salary of a driver, including bonuses, is over CZK 40,000.
Source: CTK
