On 23 May 2019, the website of the Energy Regulatory Office (ERO) published the „Report on the activities of the President of the ERO in 2018” – containing a comprehensive summary of the work carried out in the ERO last year. For the current President of the Energy Regulatory Office, 2018 was the last year of the Office’s term of 5 years.
2018 abounded in important changes and decisions significantly affecting the Polish energy sector. What was unprecedented in comparison to previous years were political decisions, which in the past year had an exceptionally strong impact on the image of the Polish energy sector and the functioning of the independent regulatory authority.
An important event of last year was the entry into force of the Law on the power market, which introduced a new public aid mechanism aimed at guaranteeing the security of energy supply. The first power auction was held in November and as a result the total volume of contracted power obligations amounted to nearly 22,5 thousand MW.
In the area of renewable energy sources, auctions for the sale of RES energy were held for the third time, confirming that the costs of RES with the development of technology decrease significantly, equalling the price of conventional energy.
In 2018, the position of consumers on energy markets was further strengthened by the entry into force of an amendment to the regulation of the Minister of Energy introducing the so-called emergency seller in gas trading. The importance of this amendment is gaining in importance in the light of events that took place last year – several companies selling electricity and gas ceased their operations, as a result of which their customers were left with no energy or gas sellers overnight.