Licence applicant

An age of at least 18, legal capacity, personal integrity, and professional competence of the licence applicant or the appointed responsible representative are understood to be the general prerequisites for licence grant.

Personal integrity of the licence applicant and the responsible representative

Under the Energy Act (Section 5(1) and (2)), the requirement for personal integrity applies to the following individuals:

• the licence applicant who is a natural person;
• all members of the governing body (all directors) of the licence applicant who is a juristic person;
• all members of the governing body (all directors) of the juristic person who is a member of the governing body (directors) of the licence applicant;
• the responsible representative of the licence applicant (see below on the responsible representative).

For this purpose, the applicant provides a Criminal Record Certificate showing the situation as at the day of filing the application (the original or a notarised copy) or the Details for Obtaining Information from Criminal Records form (see here).

If any of the above persons is a foreign national, under Section 7(4)(b) of the Energy Act ERO requires a certificate issued by the criminal records authority of the country concerned or an equivalent document issued by an authority of the country of which the individual is a national as well as of the country in which the individual last lived continuously for at least 6 months during the course of the last 3 years. If the country does not issue such documents, the individual must deposit a statement of personal integrity before the competent authority of the country. These documents or statement must not be older than 6 months; they must be originals or notarised copies (in the required cases, they must bear a legal certification proving the verification of the signature and stamp on the document for the purpose of using it in another country, for example, an apostille) and must be supplied together with an officially certified translation into Czech.

Professional competence (of the licence applicant or the responsible representative)

The requirement for professional competence must be met

• by the licence applicant who is a natural person; if the applicant does not meet the conditions for being a responsible representative the applicant must appoint a responsible representative;

• by the licence applicant who is a juristic person; such applicant must appoint a responsible representative at all times.

The applicant’s or the responsible representative’s professional competence does not have to be evidenced for electricity generation from renewable sources having an installed capacity of up to 50 kW inclusive.

The following education and work experience can evidence professional competence:

• Full tertiary education in an engineering discipline and at least 3 years of work experience in that area, or full secondary technical education in an engineering discipline with a General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE; Abitur/Matura in German, maturita in Czech) and at least 6 years of work experience;

• In respect of electricity or thermal energy production with an installed capacity of up to 1 MW inclusive and a self-standing electricity distribution installation or thermal energy distribution installation with an installed capacity of up to 1 MW inclusive, vocational training in that area and at least 3 years of work experience in the area, or a certificate of retraining for the operation of small energy generating plants or a similar certificate issued in another country (this retraining and certificate can be obtained from Svaz podnikatelů pro využití energetických zdrojů (Association of Businesses for Energy Source Utilisation)) will suffice.

Professional competence must be documented by a notarised copy of the diploma or GCSE, vocational certificate or another document proving the achieved level of education, issued by the relevant school in compliance with the legislation, and a confirmation of employment (a document proving work experience, issued by the employer under Section 313 of the Labour Code) or an employee reference letter or in some other trustworthy manner if the individual has acquired the required work experience in an employment or similar relationship; in the case of the individual’s own business, by a certificate issued by the Trades Licences register and a tax return or by another document clearly showing that the applicant or the responsible representative has carried on business activities in the area for the time required by the Energy Act, or in another manner that does not raise legitimate doubts about professional competence.

Responsible representative

Responsible representatives must meet the general prerequisites and possess personal integrity and professional competence (see above for all of this). ERO approves the appointment of a responsible representative for the licensee.

Append the following to your application:

Form B Appointment of a Responsible Representative, and the Statement of the Responsible Representative form (available here).

Form B must be signed by the authorised person and the Statement of the Responsible Representative form must bear a notarised signature of the responsible representative. A person authorised to act, as recorded in the Commercial Register, may appoint a responsible representative; otherwise, under a power of attorney.

A member of the Supervisory Board or of another supervisory body of the juristic person must not be the juristic person’s responsible representative on account of a potential conflict of interests.

If the responsible representative terminates their activities or no longer meets the conditions for holding this position, the licence holder must nominate a new responsible representative within 15 days of the moment when the responsible representative terminated their activities or ceased to meet the conditions for holding this position. Failure to meet this requirement is an administrative offence under Section 91(1)(a) of the Energy Act. Pending the approval of the new responsible representative, the licence holder is responsible for the performance of the licensed activity.