- EDITIONS
- FOR ATTENDEES
- FOR THE MEDIA
- HOTELS
- CONTACT
- PO POLSKU
-
Registration - February 2024
Registration - February 2024
The discussion about Poland’s energy policy is being revived. The issue of our country’s energy security is now at the forefront, which is also linked to the transition. There are so many challenges that a new, coherent energy strategy for Poland is becoming urgent.
Following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the geopolitical situation in Europe has changed fundamentally which has also had implications for energy. Among other things, the risks of Europe’s dependence on Chinese technologies, including those applicable to energy, are increasingly commented on. And cyber security, for example, needs to be treated on a par with the physical security of energy installations.
It is therefore quite obvious that there is a renewed discussion about energy policy, including Poland’s energy security. There are several reasons for this taking place now.
These include the change of government after the 2023 elections, the growing aspirations of the European Union regarding CO2 emission reductions and the development of RES or, finally, and this has been happening for a long time, the obsolescence of the current national energy policy (also understood here as a document).
“A new energy strategy for Poland should be developed as soon as possible”.
In the opinion of Maciej Bando, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Climate and Environment and Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure, a new energy strategy for Poland should be drafted as soon as possible.
“This strategy, which in principle has not been subject to any significant changes for years, has obviously – by now – become a bit of a thing of the past. We must focus on ensuring that we have secure access to energy and maximum self-sufficiency of sources – because of geopolitical and any other criteria”, commented Maciej Bando.
Maciej Bando further stated that much more emphasis needs to be placed on the cyber security aspect, as – in his opinion – it has not been sufficiently perceived so far. He also pointed out that cyber security must be combined with the physical security of energy infrastructure – “so that no surprises happen to us”.
“The change in energy policy announced by Minister Hennig-Kloska must, of course, go hand in hand with a national energy and climate plan and a review of the so-called Polish nuclear programme”, added Bando.
He assessed that another major challenge “faced by the whole world and especially by Europe, which wants to be a leader in RES and zero-carbon, is the maximum electrification of different areas such as heating”.
“But it is important to remember that this triggers at least an additional demand for energy, which may be in short supply at some point. So a sustainable energy policy is a prerequisite for us to come together in a few years’ time and say that we have achieved what was planned”, said the Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure.
He also stated, among other things, that it does not make sense for the time being to develop maximum RES capacities “wherever the investor will expect immediate connection, immediate take-up, because we are already dealing with problems of generation reduction”.
“Despite appearances, transformation and security are very close concepts”.
In the opinion of Rafał Gawin, President of the Energy Regulatory Authority, transition and security are very close concepts to each other, because transition means change, to which one has to adapt.
“For a very long time, we have identified the transition with building zero-carbon sources, renewable energy, but this is only a part of the picture”, emphasised Rafał Gawin.
He pointed out that the economy was moving towards decarbonisation, but that in order for this to happen, in addition to the development of zero-carbon sources, infrastructure had to be adapted to this, which was a major challenge.
“Infrastructure, especially critical infrastructure, is what security is all about, so transformation has a lot to do with security”, explained Rafał Gawin.
He pointed out that the dispersal of generation, bringing generation closer to consumption, creating local areas where local supply and local demand can largely balance each other, is also important from a security point of view.
“It is worth looking at security a bit from the other side, that is, not only – as has been the case for many years – from the point of view of the transmission system, from the high power system, but precisely ‘from below’”, said Rafał Gawin.
He also stressed the importance of cyber security. He further pointed out that the role of the sector regulator remains important when it comes to network infrastructure, planning its development, which aims to make the most of existing resources.
“It is also about not over-investing in the network solely to meet all the needs of market participants. It is necessary to think rationally about the development of the network, as we may end up with so-called stranded costs. This problem exists in the minds of European regulators”, Rafał Gawin said.
Sebastian Jabłoński, CEO of Respect Energy, pointed out that as we are leading the energy transition based on RES, we will – ultimately – probably have to change the demand side a bit as well.
“At the moment there are very few activities that go in that direction. We have limited DSR services that remain inactive because, let’s say, they’re for a rainy day; and we don’t have any activities to change consumer or business behaviour”, said Sebastian Jabłoński.
He pointed out that the active energy market shows a competitive way of setting prices, which is that the price is lowest when there is the highest RES production and highest when RES production is lowest, and for distribution “we pay the same all the time or a little more at peak demand, a little less off-peak”.
“Introducing dynamic distribution tariffs is also a good way to ensure that consumers are motivated to consume energy when it is windy and sunny, rather than when it is most expensive. “When energy prices are zero or negative, consumers should have as high a level of incentive as possible to consume energy, therefore there will then be no need to reduce supply”, commented Sebastian Jabłoński.
He also pointed out that there are times when it is necessary to switch off RES and assessed that we will encounter such “breakouts” with increasing frequency. In his opinion, it is not a valid argument to stop investing, because it is a negligible percentage of the total production and even on days when we reduce RES generation, we do not reduce it all together after all.
Bartosz Krysta, member of the management board, commercial director at Veolia Energy Contracting Poland, said that for security and transformation to go hand in hand, a long-term stable energy policy and strategy is most important.
“I would like to see such a policy and strategy in place and in operation for 20-30 years with minor adjustments, followed by appropriate regulations. And it is very important that regulations should be an incentive and not a compulsion for those who will implement the transformation, and that those regulations should not be treated as the equivalent of a penalty”, said Bartosz Krysta, member of the management board and commercial director of Veolia Energy Contracting Poland, explaining his point of view.
He added that investments in energy transition do not have to be a profitable business, but only provide a decent rate of return and be driven by positive motivation.
He pointed out that, in his view, energy security has two basic dimensions, namely security of energy supply and price security.
“There was a massive risk of shortages of energy carriers (coal, gas) in the second half of 2022 when prices reached record levels. Security is about ensuring that there are no such situations, that the market stays stable”, commented Bartosz Krysta.
He stressed that the development of RES must continue with much greater intensity; gas fuel, however, seems inevitable as a transitional solution. He also drew attention to the potential of biogas and the importance of flexibility in the system, including energy storage – to be able to use cheap energy, sometimes at negative prices.
Joanna Pandera, president of the Energy Forum, said that when talking about security and transformation, it is – first and foremost – necessary to have a strategy, a goal and a well-articulated definition, because there is a risk that “everyone will talk about something else and we will be left with nothing”.
“It has already been said that security is about money: whether we can afford energy, whether supplies can be stable. Geopolitics is also playing an increasingly important role. The old paradigm of energy security – so long as we can afford energy, no matter where it comes from – may have a slightly different dimension in Poland, but it is over. And this is why the EU is deciding to move away from fossil fuels in favour of RES”, commented Joanna Pandera.
She concluded that a new energy security strategy is needed in our country, including in particular RES, grids, digitalisation, flexibility issues, energy storage; and the most important thing to do is to revise the approach to coal.
“It’s our strategic raw material and we don’t have a strategy for the sector. At the moment, our national energy security – which I understand as prices, the balance of generating units, the grid – is in a deteriorating state: we are importing more and more energy raw materials and the failure rate of generating units is increasing”, enumerated Joanna Pandera.
In her view, it is necessary to talk not only about moving away from coal, but about mobilising investment in a 10-year timeframe that is capable of replacing this coal.
She concluded that it can be difficult to act if energy policy, transformation is not evidence-based, fact-based – if there is no strong analytical base to support decision-making.
“Energy policy must come from energy modelling, for example. It should be based on evidence, but it is based on narratives, stories to a certain group of voters. If this narrative serves mainly to scare people, I don’t think opening the gates of the climate ministry wide will solve the issue”, commented Joanna Pandera.
This was a reference to the declaration made by Maciej Bando that experts would be listened to.
Jacek Misiejuk, CEO of Enel X Polska, indicated that he agrees with assessments that active consumers are a key element of the transformation.
“Seven years ago, Mr Bando, still as president of the Energy Regulatory Office, had the opportunity to co-create the DSR (Demand Side Response) Guaranteed Programme, in which consumers really started to actively participate, although the programme had its limitations”, said Jacek Misiejuk.
Later, he explained, DSR services became part of the power market, which has been in operation since 2021 – and in this edition DSR is an intervention, non-market programme – it is a “strategic power reserve to save the system in critical moments”.
“A large part of the reserves can be provided by active consumers. The power market was the first step in this transition; there are more than 1,300 MW (DSR units) on offer regularly, tested with PSE. Those resources are verified, resources that PSE knows it can rely on”, commented Jacek Misiejuk.
He explained that DSR is an investment alternative to power plants, but, he pointed out, with the progress of the transformation, the growth of RES, the role of ensuring secure supply is not the only area where consumers can actively help and reduce the costs of the energy system.
“It was mentioned that the production of energy from RES has been growing dynamically, and since they are weather-dependent, they need to be balanced and some consumers can play a role in this market or intervention balancing precisely in the form of a balancing market”, said Jacek Misiejuk.
He stressed that transformation investments cannot be avoided, but they can be rationalised by taking advantage of consumer flexibility, and here much depends on regulation.
“We realise the risk that almost half of the consumers could fall out of the power market next year – due to misimplemented and misinterpreted directives on emissivity. Consumers could lose their remuneration (from the power market) entirely for simply owning generators”, said Jacek Misiejuk.
Michał Wypychewicz, CEO and General Director of ZPUE, assessed that Poland today simply cannot afford not to invest in the energy transition.
“And it’s not a question of whether to invest, it’s a question of how to do it, because business has known for a long time that a competitive economy without an energy transition, without basing it on RES and without major investment in this area, is simply impossible”, said Michał Wypychewicz.
“If we want to develop and if we want to be, internationally, a country that has aspirations to catch up with the West, we cannot drop out at this juncture”, he added.
He stressed that if one talks about security, one must start with the risk-provoking factors, and these can be divided into several groups, including those related to global trends.
“I’ll frankly admit that I am getting furious when I hear about Polexit. Global trends are such that superpowers are being formed. China and the US will be the main powers on the international scene. If we want to have any weight in this game, we have to cooperate in Europe. We cannot seek separatism”, stressed the CEO of ZPUE.
Inverter technology is an example of the risks, Michał Wypychewicz said, arising from these clashes.
“Polish and European RES are 90% based on Chinese electronics, with two-way communication. Today, any direct current generation that is converted to alternating current, because in saying that, the CEO of ZPUE stressed that these are the basic risks that can be addressed at a relatively low cost by creating Polish or European technologies. He also referred to the issue of grid investments.
“I would disagree that we are at the stage of discussing over-investment in the grid – very far from that point. In certain narrow areas of the grid this may happen, but – looking at security and risk – today, on the slider of over-investment and under-investment, we are definitely on the under-investment side in the grid”, said Michał Wypychewicz.
The text draws on feedback from the “Energy, Transformation, Security” debate at the EEC Trends conference held on 8 February 2024.
“(Usually such a process is encountered) is based on technology that is neither Polish, nor European, nor even American”, explained Michał Wypychewicz.
He pointed out that this is technology equipped with SIM cards and it is very likely that all our network data is simply in China.
“When the conflict of global powers starts to escalate, the question is whether someone in Asia will be tempted to press the off button for Poland....”, said Michał Wypychewicz.
You watching archival version of European Economic Congress
What you can do:
Go to the current edition page or Continue browsing