Over the past three years, Poles have started to massively install solar panels. The capacity of photovoltaic power plants in Poland has increased from 612 MW in 2019 to 5,626 MW in July 2021. The rapid increase in power coincided with subsidies under the My Electricity 4.0 program. However, the distribution network was not ready for this.
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The dark side of photovoltaics [NextStation]
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Energy suppliers are having problems because we produce too much solar energy
For some time the government has been inclined to change the photovoltaics and resale excess energy to the system. Installing solar panels is to stop being so profitable. This has a practical dimension as the power grids cannot withstand such large energy transfers from prosumers.
More information from the country on the Gazeta.pl home page
– We already have a lot of complaints filed with distribution network operators that the system turns off their installations in energy “peaks”. This is due to the fact that our power grid has a limited capacity. If we were to remain unreflectively in the prosumer development model, we could de facto harm the prosumers themselves. These are the laws of physics, it cannot be stopped – he spoke a year ago in the Green Morning of Gazety.pl Ireneusz Zyska, Deputy Minister of Climate.
The representative of the climate ministry also explained that new regulations are necessary to implement EU directives. This is it European Union needs an introduction new the way of settling prosumers.
– It is a complete reconstruction of the power model, the transfer of responsibility, the energy security paradigm from the global level to the local level – he said.
PLN 100 billion for the transformation of distribution networks
The problem is so big that the government appointed in October last year a team that is working on the Social Agreement of the Sector Regulatory and the Distribution Industry under the name “The Charter of Effective Transformation of Distribution Networks. Poland Energetyki. ”In recent days, meetings of the Steering Committee, which heads the Team, were held.
– In the face of aggression Russia to Ukraine, it is necessary to take measures to strengthen energy security and sovereignty. They have a key role in this process RESTherefore, it is extremely important to ensure conditions for their further sustainable development, so as to ensure the safety of the power grid operation. At the same time, it is important to ensure adequate funds for investments for the modernization and construction of networks that will enable further absorption of energy from RES installations – Minister Ireneusz Zyska said at the opening of the meeting on Tuesday.
Boss Energy Regulatory Office has already provided an estimate of the amount that will be spent on modernizing distribution networks.
We are faced with the need to complete investments estimated at nearly PLN 100 billion. We want to ensure that these funds are spent as efficiently as possible. This is what the draft sectoral agreement is supposed to serve. (…) Work on the “Charter …” is going in the right direction and we should finish them at the turn of June and July this year.
– Rafał Gawin saidPresident of the Energy Regulatory Office, summing up the meeting.
As reported by polskieradio24.pl According to PAP, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office specified that the expenses are necessary due to the need to adapt the Polish power grid to the increased transmission of electricity produced by current and future individual photovoltaic installations.
Gawin also said that the investments could not be financed by energy companies from the increase in tariff rates. – If these 100 billion zlotys were to be translated into the tariff, the tariff should increase by several percent year on year only on account of these investments – noted the head of the Energy Regulatory Office.
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