Challenges for Community Energy in Poland
On 21 November 2024, the first Polish National Workshop on Electricity in Energy Communities was organised as part of the COMMENCE project. The online event brought together 40 participants, including representatives of local governments and existing energy communities throughout the country.
The workshop was opened by Krzysztof Fal, Director of Program Development at WiseEuropa. He spoke about the project and presented the document developed as part of the project: “National Guidelines for Energy Communities in Poland”. Then, the audience members were invited to share their comments and remarks. After once they have been taken into account, the final version of the document will be prepared, which will serve as a guide for local government units that are interested in the establishment of an energy community/cluster.
The next presentation was given by Tomasz Chmiel, who represented the Interdisciplinary Department of Energy Analysis at the National Nuclear Research Centre. His presentation included proposed business models for Local Balancing Authorities (LBAs).
The second part of the workshop consisted of two panel discussions. The first one focused on the regulatory and economic environment for the development of community energy and hosted: Tomasz Chmiel, Marcin Jaczewski (Ministry of Climate and Environment) and Anna Witkowska (Ignacy Lukasiewicz Institute for Energy Policy). Marcin Jaczewski emphasised that although this solution was introduced on a complicated system, it worked, and there were more and more energy cooperatives in Poland. It is difficult to expect a revolution in terms of the planned legal changes, but the system will certainly improve gradually. However, community energy appears in many strategic documents, which shows its great importance.
The second panel, devoted to the experience of clusters and municipalities themselves in establishing such a form of activity, featured Rafał Czaja (Professor Krzysztof Żmijewski Association for Efficiency), Joanna Tokarczuk (Zklaster) and Tomasz Drzał (National Chamber of Energy Clusters).
Summarising both panel discussions, the following issues were raised:
- Net metering is considered as an obstacle to the development of energy communities.
- There have been numerous changes in the law, and those responsible for maintaining energy communities have not kept up with them.
- There is the need to establish so-called “power gatekeepers” (a concept that already exists in the legislation).
- Fines for energy communities should be very balanced, as not all communities may have the means to pay them.
- Clusters play also an educational role in changing the awareness of citizens, and bring benefits for local communities.
- There is lack of human resources for energy community maintenance activities – this is especially a problem at the beginning of an entity, when the primary task is to generate at least enough energy to fund the work of those involved.
The upcoming workshops of the COMMENCE project in Poland, as well as in the other partner countries (Czechia, Hungary, and Slovakia), are scheduled for late 2024, early months of 2025 respectively.
Read the handbook “National Guidelines for Energy Communities in Poland” here (Polish language only).