Thursday 2 October 2014

Warmia and Mazury voivodeship faces many cancellations of investments in RES, due to the problems with connections to the national grid

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Due to the difficulties associated with the connection to the national transmission lines many investment cancellations took on the territory of Warmia and Mazury voivodeship.  The region, which already has problems with energy security, might face difficulties with sustaining safe level of electricity if the management of this issue will not change. The post presents opinion of authorities and the operator of the electricity grid on the territory of Warmia and Mazury.

In order to better understand the scope of problem, it is worth describing the specificity of the region. Warmia and Mazury voivodeship ( seen on the map) is defined as a region with very backward energy system, where more than 90 percent of energy consumed is being
imported from other regions. In recent years, energy security in the Warmia-Mazury has improved thanks to the energy bridge between Poland and Lithuania and construction of a new 400 kV line between Ostrołęka – Olsztyn – Mątki.

Despite the pointed improvements, the situation in the region seems to be worrying for the authorities responsible for the development of clean energy and those ensuring security of the grid. President of the Regional Fund for Environmental Protection ( Polish: Fundusz Ochrony Srodowiska FOS) in Olsztyn, Maria Sokoll, told PAP ( Polish Press Agency)  that in recent years, investors have resigned from the construction of , among others, photovoltaic farms and biogas plants, even though they had signed a contract with the institution of their funding. The decision has been made laid upon  problems with obtaining connection of the planned investment to the national transmission line. The company responsible for the connections to those investors determined the conditions that they could not meet, for example indicating possible connection to the transmission line that run through the plot belonging to several private persons. In such situation, the investor either buys the land for the planned connection line or resigned from the investment as there is no obligation for the private owner to allow usage of its property for the electricity line. The only alternative could be new "space planning strategy" that incorporated all the new investments and its cabling connection – which is very costly and lengthy procedure.
 
Poland is very intensively working on the lowering emissions of the greenhouse gases (due to the Poland's dependency on coal for the electricity production), therefore any investment in RES is beneficial. Furthermore, as a member of EU, many funds are being distributed to,still, new member states in order to construct new power plants. If many companies resign from such investments due to the impossibility of their connection to the national power system, it can be projected that the region will stop its development in RES sector. Furthermore, the region's general power security is at stake.
 
The regional company responsible for the determining the conditions of power connection (Energa-Operator) does not feel responsible for the complication of the investments in the area. The representative of the company Piotr Janiak told PAP that  Energa-Operator if the company does not agree to the conditions proposed by Energa on the connection expire automatically after 2 years. He also pointed out that his company "has no knowledge about the causes of the resignation by the parties on the implementation of connection ".
 
Before proposal for the connection to the electricity transmission line, Energa-Operator needs to do technical evaluation of the investment. The study is performed by external research and development units. Its main aim is to check whether the network connection of the facility to be adhered to technical parameters on the quality of electric power, short-circuit conditions, the permissible voltage change if the permitted ampacity of network elements. These criteria are strictly defined and uniformly applied by all operators in.

Due to the problems (which are not new to the government), authorities are extensively working on the change of regulation in the distribution of EU funds. In their eyes, the grants should not only cover investment in the PV/biogas plant but also its connection to the national system.

 

 

 

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