Auctions of Guarantees of Origin – Basic Information

Following amendments to Act No. 165/2012 Coll., on Supported Energy Sources (the POZE Act), the market operator has taken on new activities and responsibilities directly related to activities carried out in the Registry of Guarantees of Origin (EZP). These include organising auctions of guarantees of origin for market participants.

In connection with these changes, the Registry of Guarantees of Origin has been extended with a new module for GO auctions. The module enables the organisation of auctions of guarantees of origin and the implementation of related processes in order to meet the new legislative requirements.

In auctions of guarantees of origin, GOs from the account of the Czech Republic will be offered. These GOs are issued for production from supported production facilities under the POZE Act; the system therefore prevents their issuance to the accounts of the owners of those facilities. Participants will be able to submit bids to buy GOs in an auction and also offer GOs for sale.

On 12 May 2026, the market operator organised an information webinar summarising the main information on the upcoming auctions of guarantees of origin, including the possibility for participants to test the auction module before the launch of auctions. The presentation in Czech is available for download here.

From 26 May 2026 to 28 May 2026, testing took place in the OTE test environment for interested account holders in the Registry of Guarantees of Origin.

The latest information, including the date of the first auction, will be provided in the form of updates. Please also pay close attention to the Important Documents section on the page below, where all related documents will be available for download.

To participate in auctions, it is necessary to hold an account in EZP and to conclude an Agreement on Access to Auctions. The procedure for concluding the agreement is available on the OTE website in the Contractual Partners section under the link “Procedure for Concluding the Agreement on Access to Auctions of Guarantees of Origin”. The standard Agreement on Access to Auctions of Guarantees of Origin is available under “OTE Standard Agreements for Auctions of Guarantees of Origin”.

Description of the Bid-Matching Algorithm for Auctions of Guarantees of Origin

Technically, guarantees of origin (GOs) for all commodities supported by EZP can be traded in auctions. A specific auction consists of GO categories, which group GOs according to the following characteristics:

·         production technology: wind / solar / hydro / nuclear / advanced biomethane / ...;

·         remaining validity in months: <0–3); <3–6); <6–9); <9–12).

The remaining-validity interval is left-closed and right-open: <from; to).

In the case of the gas commodity, the categories are further extended by the following parameters: applicability only in the Czech Republic (yes / no) and GHG savings (low / high).

Within a buy or sell bid, auction participants may select one specific GO category in which they wish to buy or sell GOs. In the case of a buy bid, participants may also use a so-called variable bid to select at least two GO categories in which they wish to buy GOs and then rank those categories by priority. The preferred order of categories is taken into account by the bid-matching mechanism in certain borderline matching situations.

The algorithm will operate on the basis of one marginal price for each category of the relevant auction; each auction category will therefore have one final marginal price. This price will be determined by the lowest price of a partially or fully matched buy bid. In addition to determining the marginal price, the matching result will define the traded quantities of the bids included in the matching process.

The objective of the matching algorithm is to achieve the highest possible social welfare (SW) individually for each commodity. Social welfare is the sum of the difference between the maximum price buyers are willing to pay and the price they actually pay for the guarantees of origin, and the difference between the price at which sellers sell and the minimum price at which they are willing to sell the guarantees of origin. If the same SW is achieved, the solution with the higher total traded quantity is preferred.

The operation of the algorithm can be evaluated graphically using matching curves, which show the relationship between quantity and bid prices and follow these rules:

·         Matching curves represent bids, or their parts in the case of variable bids, that relate to a specific auction category.

·         Buy bids are sorted from the highest price to the lowest price. If prices are equal, priority is given to the bid that was entered or last modified earlier over a bid that was entered or modified later, i.e. with a later timestamp.

·         Sell bids are sorted from the lowest price to the highest price. If prices are equal, priority is given to the bid that was entered or last modified earlier over a bid that was entered or modified later, i.e. with a later timestamp. This does not apply where the bid is created by the state, i.e. from the account of the Czech Republic, by inserting an offer into the auction; in that case, the state-side bid is always given priority.

·         A variable buy bid may be matched simultaneously in different categories, provided that the sum of the traded quantities in the individual categories does not exceed the total requested quantity of the bid. During bid matching, the quantity of a variable bid is allocated or moved to other categories in parts.

Technically, a minimum unit price of EUR 0.01/MWh and a maximum unit price of EUR 99,999.99/MWh may be offered in an auction.

Contacts

Important documents