Net billing, new rules for billing prosumers

Currently, prosumers settle their electricity bills on the basis of discounts, which allow them to feed surplus energy into the distribution network and then receive it back on preferential terms. For larger installations (above 10 kW), this is done at a ratio of 1 to 0.7, and for smaller ones (no larger than 10 kW) at a ratio of 1 to 0.8. Prosumers settling accounts under the current rules will remain in the discount system for the next 15 years, unless they decide to use the new rules.

The net billing solution introduced by the amendment provides for the settlement of the value (not the quantity) of electricity fed into the distribution network. Prosumers will therefore be able to sell surplus energy to the grid at average market prices, while for balancing purposes they will draw energy from the grid at the same rate as any end user, in accordance with the tariff of the relevant energy company, including all related charges. In other words, net billing will be based on separate billing for energy fed into and taken from the grid.
Net billing will not apply to prosumers using micro-installations connected to the grid by 31 March 2022, nor to prosumers who have correctly submitted an application for registration of a micro-installation by 31 March 2022. Incomplete applications may be corrected within 14 days.
It should be noted that from 1 April 2022, in accordance with the new definition of a collective prosumer, energy production for own use will be allowed in small installations. This means that the net billing system will also cover small RES installations belonging to collective renewable energy prosumers.
For other micro and small installations that generated and fed electricity into the grid for the first time between 1 April and 30 June 2022, the amended RES Act provides for the temporary application of a discount system only in relation to the amount of energy fed into the grid during the above-mentioned period. This means that from 1 July 2022, all new small and micro installations (connected or notified after 31 March 2022) will be covered by the new settlement mechanism.
For the purpose of recording and settling the amount of electricity and its value, trading companies will be required to create individual accounts for prosumers, where the amount and value of electricity fed into the grid and withdrawn from the grid by the prosumer will be recorded, as well as the value of funds for electricity fed into the grid (the so-called prosumer deposit). Importantly, funds collected in the individual account that are not used by the prosumer within 12 months will be returned to them in the amount of up to 20% of the value of the electricity fed into the grid. The remaining 80% will be subject to redemption.

Another important new solution is the introduction of definitions for virtual prosumers and collective renewable energy prosumers.
A virtual prosumer will be an end user who generates energy from a renewable energy source connected to the electricity distribution network in a location other than the place where the electricity is supplied to that user. This is intended to facilitate investments based on balancing energy from renewable energy sources located at a distance from the place of consumption and actual electricity consumption.
A collective prosumer will be considered to be an end user who generates electricity from RES for their own needs in a micro-installation or small installation connected to the electricity distribution network via the internal electrical installation of a multi-unit building in which the end user’s electricity consumption point is located. Interestingly, a similar restriction to small and micro-installations has not been provided for in the definition of a virtual prosumer, although it should be noted that both virtual and collective prosumers may assign to their consumption point an installed electrical capacity not exceeding 50 kW.

The first amendments to the RES Act came into force on 22 December 2021. They concern the continued application of the discount system for prosumers whose micro-installations were connected to the grid after 31 March 2022 on the basis of an application submitted by that date, as well as prosumers whose micro-installations were connected to the grid before 31 March 2022, but whose first feed-in to the grid took place after that date. In all other respects, the amendment will enter into force on 1 April 2022, with the rules on virtual prosumers only becoming applicable from 2 July 2024.