Introducing Essential Critical Infrastructure Services: Electricity Supply

29. mája 2026

The Critical Infrastructure Association of the Slovak Republic is opening a new series of articles in which we will progressively introduce all essential services defined by Act No. 367/2025 Coll. on Critical Infrastructure. After a series on sectors, we will now look more closely at the specific services on which the everyday functioning of the state, the economy and the population depend. We begin with the service that is a prerequisite for all others — the supply of electricity.

Electricity supply within the structure of the energy sector


To aid orientation, we set out the position of this essential service in the energy sector as defined in Annex No. 1 to Act No. 367/2025 Coll. on Critical Infrastructure:


Sector:  1. Energy

Subsector: a) Electricity

Category of Entities: Electricity enterprises under a special regulation

Essential Services: Electricity supply

Central Authority: Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic

 

Electricity supply is a essential service in the energy sector, subsector electricity. It is one of the services whose disruption or interruption has an immediate impact on all other critical infrastructure sectors — transport, healthcare, finance, water, postal services and digital infrastructure. Without electricity, hospitals, filling stations, postal sorting centres, data centres, payment systems and water-pumping stations stop operating.


Why this matters


Because electricity is not merely a commodity; it is the prerequisite for the functioning of virtually everything else. A one-hour outage in one region is an inconvenience. An outage across the whole country for a day is a state crisis. And when an outage lasts longer, it becomes a threat to life and health, disrupts public order and undermines the state's ability to perform its basic functions. For this reason the legislator pays special attention to electricity supply and imposes stricter requirements on critical infrastructure entities in this sector regarding security, continuity and resilience.


Central state authority


The central state authority for the energy sector and, within it, for the electric power subsector is the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic. The Ministry determines critical infrastructure entities in the sector, assesses operators' risk analyses and security plans, and coordinates the sector with other state bodies in addressing extraordinary events. Regulatory competencies in the field of electric power are performed by the Regulatory Office for Network Industries.


Entities providing electricity supply


According to Annex No. 1 to Act No. 367/2025 Coll., the basic service electricity supply is provided by electric-power enterprises under the special regulation, which is Act No. 251/2012 Coll. on Energy, as amended, specifically §3(b) point five of the Act. An electric-power enterprise means a person that carries out at least one of the activities: electricity generation, electricity transmission, electricity distribution, aggregation, provision of flexibility, electricity storage, electricity supply or purchase of electricity for the purpose of resale, and who in relation to these activities is responsible for commercial tasks, technical tasks or maintenance; a final electricity customer is not an electric-power enterprise.


In practice this mainly includes:


- electricity suppliers — commercial companies authorised to supply electricity that deliver electricity to households, businesses, public administration and other customers on the basis of a supply contract or a bundled supply contract;
- suppliers performing the universal service for households and small businesses under the Energy Act.


On the Slovak market several entities operate in this category; among the largest are, for example, Slovenské elektrárne, Slovenský plynárenský priemysel, Stredoslovenská energetika and Západoslovenská energetika within their commercial divisions, as well as several alternative suppliers. The Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic decides on classifying a particular supplier as a critical infrastructure entity based on criteria set by law and implementing regulations, primarily according to the number of customers, the volume of electricity supplied and the significance for the operation of the system.


Specific characteristics and risks of electricity supply


Electricity supply has several characteristics that make it particularly sensitive. Electricity cannot be stored in large quantities; it must be produced and consumed in real time while maintaining the balance between production and consumption in the system. Certain storage capacities are provided by pumped-storage hydroelectric plants, battery energy storage systems, flywheel storage and sector-integration technologies such as Power-to-X. However, their installed output and energy capacity are by far insufficient to cover the system needs of the transmission and distribution network.


The system is geographically extensive, technologically complex and increasingly dependent on digital control systems. The economy is interconnected with the European market and the system operates synchronously with other countries. This means that a fault in one part of Europe can also have an impact on Slovakia.


The main risks faced by entities are cyber-attacks on control and dispatch systems, physical attacks on transmission and distribution components, fuel and primary source outages, extreme weather, lack of qualified personnel, dependence on external technology suppliers and, in crisis scenarios, targeted sabotage or hybrid operations.


The Critical Infrastructure Association of the Slovak Republic as a partner for electricity-supply providers


Electricity suppliers today face a combination of regulatory pressure, security threats and technological changes. The Critical Infrastructure Act brings new obligations for preparing risk analyses, security plans, appointing responsible persons, communication with the state and incident handling. The Critical Infrastructure Association of the Slovak Republic was created to ensure that electricity-supply providers are not left alone in this process.


The Critical Infrastructure Association of the Slovak Republic brings together critical entities, technology suppliers, experts and professional organisations into a single platform that provides methodological support in fulfilling obligations under the Critical Infrastructure Act, exchange of experience among entities in the subsector and across sectors, expert opinions on draft legislation, contact with state authorities and regulators, and practical solutions for incident preparedness and crisis situations.


If you are an electricity supplier or a supplier of technologies and services for electricity-supply providers, membership in the Critical Infrastructure Association of the Slovak Republic gives you access to information, contacts and know-how directly focused on the needs of critical infrastructure entities, which are otherwise difficult to obtain in such a consolidated and practical form.

In further articles of the series we will gradually present the other essential services of critical infrastructure, from the supply of gas and heat through drinking water, transport and financial services to digital infrastructure and healthcare.

Predstavujeme základné služby kritickej infraštruktúry: Dodávka elektriny

29. mája 2026
Asociácia kritickej infraštruktúry Slovenskej republiky otvára novú sériu článkov, v ktorej postupne predstavíme všetky základné služby definované zákonom č. 367/2025 Z. z. o kritickej infraštruktúre. Popri sérii o sektoroch sa teraz pozrieme bližšie na konkrétne služby, od ktorých závisí každodenné fungovanie štátu, ekonomiky a obyvateľstva. Začíname službou, ktorá je predpokladom všetkých ostatných – dodávkou elektriny.

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Until a few years ago, data centres were mostly perceived as the technical backbone of the internet, cloud services and corporate servers. Today, however, the situation is changing dramatically. The rapid development of artificial intelligence, massive generative AI models and the accelerating digitalisation of states mean that data centres are becoming among the largest new consumers of electricity in Europe.

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Introducing the Critical Infrastructure Sectors: Postal Services

25. mája 2026
The Critical Infrastructure Association of the Slovak Republic continues its series of articles introducing both the public and the professional community to the individual sectors of critical infrastructure as defined by Act No. 367/2025 Coll. on Critical Infrastructure and on Amendments to Certain Acts. Following sectors such as energy, transport and finance, we now turn to a sector that is part of the daily life of citizens as well as the functioning of the state – postal services.

Predstavujeme sektory kritickej infraštruktúry: Poštové služby

25. mája 2026
Asociácia kritickej infraštruktúry Slovenskej republiky pokračuje v sérii článkov, ktorými verejnosti aj odbornej obci predstavuje jednotlivé sektory kritickej infraštruktúry definované zákonom č. 367/2025 Z. z. o kritickej infraštruktúre a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov. Po sektoroch ako energetika, doprava či financie sa tentoraz venujeme sektoru, ktorý je súčasťou každodenného života občanov aj fungovania štátu – poštovým službám.

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21. mája 2026
Until recently, the security of critical infrastructure was associated mainly with the protection of physical facilities, energy sources, or state systems. Today, however, it is increasingly clear that the real vulnerability often lies outside the organisation itself: in its supply chains, technology partners, and external services.

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Two Members of AKI SR Are Taking Slovak Research into Space: The COSMOS-SECURE Project Will Bring Post-Quantum Secure Voice Communication for Space Missions

13. mája 2026
The Critical Infrastructure Association of the Slovak Republic is proud to present the success of two of its members, Decent Cybersecurity s. r. o. and FREQUENTIS Solutions & Services s. r. o., which have jointly secured funding for the four-year research and development project COSMOS-SECURE. The project, with total eligible expenditures of EUR 4,144,273.37 and a requested non-repayable financial contribution of EUR 2,981,048.65, focuses on an area that, until recently, belonged mainly to major space agencies: secure voice communication between ground stations, satellites, and spacecraft crews in an era when quantum computers are beginning to challenge the existing foundations of cryptography.

Dvaja členovia AKI SR posúvajú slovenský výskum do vesmíru: projekt COSMOS-SECURE prinesie postkvantovú bezpečnú hlasovú komunikáciu pre vesmírne misie

13. mája 2026
Asociácia kritickej infraštruktúry Slovenskej republiky s hrdosťou predstavuje úspech dvoch svojich členov, spoločností Decent Cybersecurity s. r. o. a FREQUENTIS Solutions & Services s. r. o., ktoré spoločne získali financovanie pre štvorročný výskumno-vývojový projekt COSMOS-SECURE. Projekt s celkovými oprávnenými výdavkami vo výške 4 144 273,37 € a požadovanou výškou nenávratného finančného príspevku 2 981 048,65 € sa zameriava na to, čo bolo donedávna doménou veľkých vesmírnych agentúr: bezpečnú hlasovú komunikáciu medzi pozemnými strediskami, satelitmi a posádkami vesmírnych lodí v ére, keď kvantové počítače začínajú spochybňovať existujúce kryptografické základy.