Unofficial information that the Polish government has received from Brussels shows that the European Commission will not agree to the introduction of a power surcharge relief for industrial consumers. This means that Polish industry, which has already suffered sufficiently from the energy price increase in 2018 and is now suffering the negative consequences of COVID-19, will suffer again – taking on a significant part of the costs associated with the operation of the power market in Poland.
Opłata mocowa – co to jest i od kiedy zacznie obowiązywać?
The capacity charge was introduced by the Power Market Act of 8 December 2017, but end consumers will see it for the first time on their energy invoices for October 2020. By paying the capacity charge, each customer – in simple terms – bears the cost of keeping large generating installations (including conventional installations) on standby so that, in the event of a shortage of capacity in the electricity system, such installations are ready to inject additional capacity into the system. This is intended to increase the country’s energy security and prevent the so-called blackout that almost happened to us in August 2015.
The power fee rates will be officially announced by the President of the ERO by 30 September 2020 at the latest. However, we already know that they will depend on energy consumption during selected hours of the day – i.e. higher power rates will apply during peak consumption and lower ones during off-peak consumption.
It is to be expected that the power fee rates to be announced by the ERO President may be significantly higher than those planned by the government at the stage of designing the Power Market Act. This is because the ERO President determines these rates on the basis of the costs resulting from the power contracts concluded by the entrepreneurs who won the auctions. Based on the results of the auctions held so far, it can be estimated that the cost of the power market in Poland exceeds the estimates by approximately PLN 1 billion. The new power fee is likely to significantly increase the cost of energy purchases for energy-intensive companies.
Kto mógłby skorzystać z ulgi?
In order to ensure the competitiveness of Polish industry, the Power Market Act has provided relief for large industrial consumers – relief that may not be available to anyone.
According to the regulations, those entitled to take advantage of the relief are entities carrying out the activities specified in the Act (e.g. production of metals, lead, copper, glass, cement plants, paper industry, ceramic products and others), having an electricity consumption intensity factor of not less than 3% and at the same time consuming not less than 100 GWh of electricity per year.
Entities meeting the above conditions submit a special declaration to the ERO President together with the required documents confirming the fulfilment of the conditions. After verification of the documents, the ERO President shall enter the given customer on the list of industrial customers entitled to benefit from the power fee relief in the following calendar year.
On 31 December 2019. The President of the Energy Regulatory Office has even already announced the first such list of customers who would be exempted from paying part of the power fee in 2020 (Information of the President of the Energy Regulatory Office No. 108/2019 – this list was prepared, so to speak, with suspensive effect)
Ile rzeczywiście wynosi ulga?
The value of the relief depends on the value of the energy intensity factor for the entity, i.e. the ratio of the cost of electricity consumed for own consumption to the gross value added. For example, a consumer with an intensity factor in the range 3% – 20% would pay a capacity charge on 80% of the electricity volume consumed (rather than on the total, as other consumers do). A customer with a coefficient between 21% and 40% would be required to pay a capacity charge on 60% of the energy consumed. By contrast, a consumer with a coefficient higher than 40% would only pay a capacity charge on 15% of the energy consumed by the utility.
And what next?
If the unofficial information is confirmed by a formal decision of the European Commission, energy-intensive companies, which are already in a difficult situation, will be additionally burdened with the full cost of the power fee. Of course, one way could be to shift production to off-peak hours so that the capacity charge is lower. However, this is only a temporary solution and one that is impossible to implement (or not cost-effective) in some production facilities.
In order to protect against energy price increases, it seems necessary to implement far-reaching solutions, such as, for example, building one's own generation source, concluding a corporate PPA or at least concluding a contract with a trading company based on the prices quoted on the Polish Power Exchange, which have recently fallen significantly.
For companies with flexible production systems, DSR programmes are also possible. In times of so much regulatory uncertainty, it makes sense to protect yourself as much as possible against unexpected decisions made at the highest levels.
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