The minister of energy Krzysztof Tchórzewski announced the transfer of all electricity trading (without RES and cogeneration) to the stock exchange. The companies will have to trade energy at the Polish Power Exchange. The minister encourages them to start from August 1, which is supposed to „calm down” the market – says Wojciech Jakóbik, editor-in-chief of BiznesAlert.pl.
Stock market at 100 percent
– Prices for households will not change this year, because their value is influenced by the average annual value from last year, not its temporary jumps on the stock exchange. I hope that the increase in the exchange obligation will stabilize electricity prices on the wholesale market and prevent unjustified raises in 2019 – emphasized Minister Tchórzewski.
The Renewable Energy Institute forecast shows that the price of electricity for individual consumers in Poland will increase by over 22 percent (up to PLN 316/MWh), for small and medium enterprises by over 19 percent (up to PLN 381/MWh), and for industry by 8,9 percent (PLN 259/MWh). It is a threat to the competitiveness of the Polish economy. The problem was described by Rzeczpospolita.
Another problem of the Polish energy industry is insufficient production capacity. Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE) have ensured that the energy reserves are sufficient this summer to avoid official restrictions in the form of supply levels for industry, which were introduced in 2015, when a surprising combination of atmospheric conditions and defects in power plants forced the Energy Regulatory Office to resort to this measure. – For today, PSE has sufficient overcapacity to replace this lost, we will see what will happen – calms the energy grid operator.
The Energy Forum indicates that for the industry, the reliability of supplies is more important than energy prices. Both of them strengthen trading on the stock exchange. However, both problems increase the cost of operations, so it is not worth disregarding them. The costs will additionally increase along with the growing ambition of the climate policy. The European Commission informed that due to the higher goals of the contribution of Renewable Energy Sources and energy efficiency, it recalculated the objective of reducing CO2 emissions and determined that it could reach „at least” 45 percent by 2030.
Time for next decisions
Meanwhile, Poland must quickly supplement existing powers. The final decision about the future of the nuclear project has not been made and there is no agreement on the mass construction of wind farms, and therefore the government decided to invest in another coal block at the Ostrołęka Power Plant. BiznesAlert.pl business partners say that in these realities it is the fastest possible response to the threat of a generation gap. However, from the point of view of other factors, such as the growing price of energy in Poland and the impact of increasingly ambitious climate policy on it, this is the worst choice.
The decision of the minister of energy on moving electricity trading to the stock exchange in order to stabilize the price may have an impact on the policy of electricity companies. Increasing liberalization will force competitiveness. However, a decision in isolation from the government’s energy policy, which will not solve the fundamental question of the future of the energy mix in Poland, is not enough. In September, the ministry of energy is to present a bill that will introduce a 100% exchange obligation outside of renewable energy sources and cogeneration. At the latest, there should be solutions regarding the nuclear power and windmills.
Upcoming September is going to be interesting. During the last Economic Forum in Krynica, the government suggested a turn in energy policy and greening the mix, will the next conference in this series go further?