Energy prices in Poland among the highest in the world. The factories are closed for a reason
The vast majority of electricity in Poland, but also in other markets of the world is bought by enterprises in annual contracts. And prices in contracts at 2026 have recently fallen in Poland. For a megawatt hour on April 9 at the Towariowa Energy Exchange in Warsaw you had to pay less than PLN 406, while at the beginning of February it was over PLN 470. As a result of customs duties imposed by the administration of Donald Trump and the trade war, economic forecasts are becoming more and more uninteresting. And this means that probably less will need electricity for companies next year, so its prices go down.
Okay, but is this PLN 405 for MWh already cheap or still expensive? After converting to a average exchange rate at NBP PLN 405, it gives less than 95 euros per MWh. As you can see from the map below, there are countries in a worse situation in Europe, but there are not many such countries. The highest prices of contracts are in Ireland and Romania.
Okay, but it's just Europe. And the owner of the factory, which produces international markets, considers the matter not only in the context of one continent. For example, you can produce washing machines in India, and then send them to Poland. There it is known that there is a cheap labor force, and if there is still electricity, there are a lot of arguments to transfer production, because even after adding transport costs and customs, the final price of the product may be lower.
We looked at the latest global spot prices. Their comparison sheds a lot of light on the reason for moving many production companies from Poland, especially energy -consuming ones.
In Turkey, on Wednesday, the price of megawatt hours of electricity the next day cost less than 74 euros, i.e. by 23 percent. less than in Poland. In Brazil it is less than 19 euros, i.e. by 80 percent. cheaper, in China 48 euros, i.e. by 49 percent cheaper. Japan is also much cheaper than Poland (35 %), USA (by 65 %)and even Sweden (by 52 percent).
In such a situation, the competitiveness of investments in Poland decreases compared to other countries. This is a consequence of high energy taxation from coal in the Union by having to buy CO2 emissions by power plants.
Although Polish energy is gradually switching to renewable sources, the cost of their construction must be included in the price of energy. Investors in windmills at sea, even with current high current prices, declare that they may not arise at all. PGE reported that it needed a price of PLN 570 per MWh, so that the investment would pay back even despite EU subsidies. The prices proposed by the climate ministry are PLN 479.10 for areas closer to the shore and PLN 512.32 per mWh net for areas further. These are much higher levels than the current high prices of Polish energy.
What's more, the construction of a nuclear power plant will not change much. The estimated cost of building three AP1000 reactors in Pomerania by the American Westinghouse is PLN 192 billion. According to the calculations of Dr. Bożena Horbaczewska from SGH, based on the calculator of the International Atomic Energy Agency in the most optimistic scenario for the project, the average price of electricity from the planned power plant will reach about PLN 780 for a megawatt hour. This is even more than from the most expensive sea windmills.
The price range for the designed power plant, which was included in the application to the EC, are much lower, and rates at a level higher than PLN 700 do not take into account “even in negative scenarios”.
It seems that energy prices, although we already have one of the highest in the world, which hits our competitiveness, we will also raise further investments. Unless we give up sea windmills and look for a cheaper solution than an investment implemented by Americans.
Author: Jacek Frączyk, Business Insider Polska editor
