Szymon Majewski, Business Insider Polska: In 2022, system heating losses in Poland amounted to PLN 6.24 billion. In what condition did you find the sector three years later, covering the reins of the Polish Society of Cieplnence?
Monika Tłoslewska, director of the Polish Society of Heating Energy (PTEC): System heating sector, which consists of 23,000 km of high temperature networks, undergoes transformation. Key challenges include primarily a high degree of fossil fuels in the manufacturing mix. In 2023, the share of hard coal accounted for about 61%, natural gas 13%, and renewable energy sources – 14%. As for profitability, the latest data of the Energy Regulatory Office show slow improvement; In 2023, the losses amounted to 9.5 percent. Three years earlier it was -22 percent. Trends are positive, because the financial results improve and the participation of coal decreases, but there is still a lot to do before the sector. Especially when we look at the decarbonization purposes required by EU law.
Polish heating networks are among the largest and most extensive in Europe and supply heat over 52 percent. households in our country. Is it an advantage or weakness, if only because of the scale of the necessary investment outlays?
System heating provides thermal energy of almost 15 million Poles, including 70% of city residents. In my opinion, such a large range is an advantage. When producing system heat, modern production methods are used, which include appropriate environmental protection installations and guarantee the efficiency of energy use – especially in the cogeneration process, i.e. the simultaneous generation of heat and electrical energy. System heating is also one of the most effective methods of fighting low emissions, i.e. smog and with energy poverty.
Due to the possibilities of network development and connecting new recipients, heating systems are more effective in this respect than individual heat sources. They are also much easier to decarbonize, meanwhile in 2023 we still had 4 million coal boilers among individual sources. It is easier to “green” one large source, which provides heat to many recipients than dozens of small and separate. Exits on connecting subsequent recipients to the network are usually lower than the construction of individual heat sources, especially in multi -family housing. The risk of breaks in deliveries is also minimized, and any failures are removed very quickly.
System heating is also a key resource for power electricity, which is just beginning to talk about.
You talk about the so -called Connecting sectors and taking over excess electricity from renewable energy, which are converted into heat?
It's about such solutions. System heating can act like an energy storage and relieve the national electricity system, helping in balancing it. In addition, cogeneration units can also provide electricity as an available source. This is important in the context of local needs, but also the transformation of the entire electricity. During the exclusion of old coal blocks, cogeneration units can temporarily produce the necessary energy. However, all this requires money.
Where to get them? According to PTEC estimates, by 2050, the overall investment outlays for the decarbonization of the sector are to be between 299 to 466 billion.
The heart of financing is public funds for transformation, present, for example, in the resource of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. Their availability will allow you to keep ambitious terms founded in EU regulations, in fact Poland should become a large construction site, focused on implementing investments in heat sources, networks and heat storage. Most importantly, from the point of view of the final recipient, public financing can ensure social acceptance of heat prices. Aid programs must be over the regulations and needs of the sector, which is why we are already talking to how to support the decarbonization process.
How?
We want the law to allow the construction of independent heat warehouses. We also postulate the creation of an operational program supporting the operation of electrode boilers and heat pumps – a basic source that allows electrification of heating.
I talked about assistance funds, but there are more methods of obtaining funds for investment. In Poland, there are also operational support mechanisms, e.g. for cogeneration units, which are part of the EU definition of an effective heating system. After the introduction of necessary changes in this mechanism, cogeneration units will be able to continue to support the process of heating transformation. It is worth remembering that the use of certain technologies is somewhat preferred by EU regulations.
Let's say something more about them. What requirements does the Fit for 55 package impose on heating and what are, for example, effective heating systems from the energy efficiency directive?
The sector is most influenced by the effective directive, and the effective systems defined in it are to contain a specific share of various types of sources, with a mandatory degree of renewable energy use every few years. The schedule is very ambitious; Already in 2035, the minimum share of renewable energy or waste heat in heating will be 35 percent. Today it is a maximum of 14 percent. On a scale of the whole country, so we have a lot to do. There are challenges related to the availability of technology or fuels. The question is what sources we will be able to use in the future. Will cogeneration units have access to dyarbonized gas (biomethane or green hydrogen – editor's note), which is waiting not only for the energy industry?
According to PTEC, heating transformation will first be based on natural gas and biomass. Are they not risky directions? Gas is an emission fossil fuel and it must be imported, obtaining biomass can, in turn, argue with the need for nature protection, but also the expectations of the wood industry.
The possibilities of decarbonization are indicated by the Efficiency Directive. The question about the availability of gas is open. As a sector, we count on the fact that in the 1940s we will be able to use demarbonized gases. This can be seen after investments in cogeneration units that guarantee stable work and, as I said, are also well seen by the power sector. The production of dyarbonized gases certainly needs support.
As for biomass, in many cases it is the optimal source of heat taking into account local conditions (please remember that almost 400 licensed enterprises consist of the system heating sector in Poland). These systems have their own specifics, and the production and lunting mix must be selected individually for them, meeting not only climatic goals, but also optimizing the costs of manufacturing and prices for recipients. Especially in larger cities, the number of renewable energy technologies for heating is very limited, and the only chance to supplement the mix with renewable energy is created by biomass. Today it is responsible for 97% renewable energy in our sector. However, it meets the EU criteria for sustainable development throughout the entire supply chain. There will be more renewable energy sources; We want to develop large -scale heat pumps, electrode boilers, or, to a lesser extent, solar collectors and geothermal energy. The field will also have a waste heat, obtained, e.g. from the current data processing centers. We also want to use the potential of waste burning. However, the most integral source of renewable energy that will meet the definition of an effective heating system will remain biomass.
Are you not afraid of social conflicts against this background? Acquiring wood from forests raises great resistance, and industry also depends on the raw material.
Directives for renewable energy, biomass is a renewable source only when it meets the criteria for sustainable development. Thanks to these criteria, we are able to check the origin of biomass, its transport and subsequent purpose. Monitoring and verification are rigorous here, and subsequent amendments to the Directive de facto begin to gradually limit biomass availability. The sector adapts to these requirements. As for other ways to use biomass, regulating them is the role of the state, not our industry.
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