November 21 this year in the headquarters of the Rzeczpospolita daily a debate entitled “Guarantees of origin as part of the EU’s environmental policy. Challenges on the domestic market ” was held.
The debate was attended by Vice President of the Management Board of the Renewable Energy Association Sebastian Kwapuliński, Director of the Registry Office at the Polish Power Exchange Marek Szałas, Deputy Director of the Renewable Sources Department at the Energy Regulation Office Marek Zawiska and Director of Poland at STX Commodities Maciej Antczak .
A representative of the ERO referred to the five-year balance of operations on the market of guarantees of origin.
– With each year of operation of this system, there has been a growing interest in this instrument. Since the implementation of the guarantee of origin system, the Energy Regulatory Office has been cooperating with the Polish Power Exchange, because without the cooperation of these two entities, the functioning of this system, like the system of certificates of origin, would simply be impossible.
– As for the association, investors’ approach is close. And if we were to answer the question of what has happened in the perspective of the last five years, then there has certainly been a fundamental change with the increase in interest in guarantees of origin – noted Sebastian Kwapuliński.
– With the increase in their value and turnover, we see that guarantees are becoming an additional stream of revenues for entities generating or planning to produce electricity. While until recently guarantees were treated as documents of neglected value, now we can observe how investors preparing to obtain basic public aid, e.g. in the formula of the auction system or other instruments listed by the ERO representative in financial models, appear “Income from guarantees of origin”. And we firmly believe that as public awareness increases, thanks to, among others, debates like today, we will be able to disseminate this knowledge and convince people that it is worth consuming energy that has this additional marker – emphasized the vice president of the Renewable Energy Association.
The Polish market since around 2013, when the small energy three pack introduced the concept of guarantee of origin, has undergone quite an intensive evolution. The vast majority of points, which have so far differentiated us from European markets, have been unified on a regulatory basis, so the Polish guarantee of origin and its mechanism of action are not significantly different from European markets at the moment when it comes to the very idea of its operation. Further evolution and challenges are bringing all regulations to a common denominator. Because we are talking about a voluntary product, it is rather about what evolution we strive for and what we want to be – pointed out the director of Poland at STX Commodities.
– We work in a similar group every day, in addition with people from the ministry supervising us. As the Polish Power Exchange, we are an institution established to operate this system. And companies such as the Amsterdam broker in which Mr. Maciej Antczak works are just one of such flywheels, because we use the experience of colleagues who deal with the market in Western Europe. We also work closely with the Renewable Energy Association, which supports us in the field of law and harmonization of national provisions with European regulations. We are developing together and strive for the same goal, we want to create the right environmental awareness in Poland. We also need a joint, broad educational campaign – summed up Marek Szałas from TGE.