2025-11-22 19:50
publication
2025-11-22 19:50
The Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers adopted a draft amendment to the Energy Law, which includes, among others: simplification of the conditions for connecting new sources to the network – Minister of Energy Miłosz Motyka announced on Saturday on Platform X.
Dispute over the financing of the Energy Regulatory Office: budget instead of license fees
According to published documents, during the committee's work, the possibility of transferring no less than two-thirds of the license fees paid by energy companies to the activities of the Energy Regulatory Office was removed from the project. This possibility was proposed due to the extension of the scope of responsibilities of the President of the Energy Regulatory Office proposed in the project.
However, the Minister of Finance and Economy found such a solution inconsistent with the Public Finance Act and drew attention to the additional burden on the state budget in this respect. As a result, the state budget would remain the source of financing for the Energy Regulatory Office, subject to a certain expenditure limit.
New powers of the regulator and consumer protection
At the same time, the Minister of Energy presented estimates of additional financial needs of the Energy Regulatory Office in connection with the project imposing further obligations on the regulator. These responsibilities include: monitoring the market in the scope of concluding and using fixed-term contracts with a fixed price guarantee, offers of electricity sellers, the impact of these contracts and offers on prices and fee rates for household consumers, as well as estimating the risks associated with these contracts.
The President of the Energy Regulatory Office is also to gain greater ability to conduct inspections or explanatory proceedings in matters relating to, among others: unlawful use of internal information regarding wholesale energy products.
Revolution in contracts: several sellers and a fixed price
The draft act introduces provisions enabling the final customer to conclude more than one comprehensive contract or electricity sales contract on one connection, and also provides for the possibility for the consumer to conclude a fixed-term contract at a fixed price for a period of at least one year.
Sellers are to be obliged to provide the end user with brief information about the costs, benefits and risks associated with a given type of contract and the key terms of the contract.
Open connections and higher fees for investors
In the area of grid connections, the project introduces an obligation for transmission and distribution operators to publish information on available connection capacities, rejected connection applications and reasons for rejection, entities applying for connection of sources to the power grid, energy storage facilities and receiving installations planned for connection to the grid, refusals to connect to the power grid together with justification, and submitted applications for determining the connection conditions awaiting verification.
The fee for entities applying for connection to networks with voltage higher than 1 kV is to increase. It is to be PLN 30 for each kilowatt of connection power if the power exceeds 100 MW, and PLN 60 for each kilowatt if the power exceeds 100 MW. The maximum value of the fee is PLN 12 million.
Energy storage and cable pooling
It is also proposed to change the regulations governing “cable pooling”, including: by extending the range of types of installations that can use it to include energy storage. Distribution system operators will be able to build and manage electricity storage facilities on their own. (PAP)
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