Currently, large photovoltaic farms have the biggest problems with connection to the national power system – according to estimates by Copernic Connect, which performs grid load analysis, currently about 95% of applications for connection of large RES installations end in refusal, the company’s CEO Franciszek Buchta told Business Insider.
“From my observations, currently about 95% of applications for connecting large RES installations end in refusal. Today everyone has the energy transition on their lips, but the reality is different. We are waiting for the liberalization of the 10H rule, i.e. the change releasing the restrictions in the windmill law, which has been announced by our government. At the same time, the challenge for the industry as a whole is the underinvestment and insufficient capacity of the national electricity grid, which makes it difficult to connect photovoltaic farms. And there is really no shortage of those willing to invest in RES at the current high electricity prices,” Buchta said, as quoted by the portal.
Inefficient grids are just one of the reasons for limiting the possibility of installing photovoltaic farms in Poland. Any decision to connect another installation is preceded by a detailed technical and economic analysis of the possibility of connecting a given energy source to the grid, the article indicated.
“The technical analysis determines, among other things, the impact of the source planned for connection on the operation of the power grid and on the quality parameters of electricity. The idea is to prevent overloading of the infrastructure, which would result in its failure or damage, which could affect the safety of energy consumers and deprive them of power supply,” Tauron Distribution spokeswoman Ewa Groń explained, as quoted by Business Insider.
She added that the situation is also affected by the attitude of entities applying to connect to the grid.
“A large part of connection capacity is blocked by applications that are not implemented or are partially implemented. The connection conditions issued are valid for two years from their delivery to the applicant, and during this time the customer decides how to implement the investment. We observe that only to about 50% of the connection conditions issued, customers subsequently conclude connection agreements, so investments are actually implemented. This means that some entities apply for connection and submit applications in several locations, checking only the possibility of connection without the intention to build such sources in all these locations,” Groń said.
Entrepreneurs, in turn, point to a flawed system for analyzing access to infrastructure.
“When an investor submits an application for connection to the grid, the operator is responsible for performing an expert analysis of the impact of this connection on the power system. Often it turns out that even without this installation, many elements of the network are already overloaded by tens to even 200%. How is this possible? There are many reasons, for example, in the network model for the analysis, applications for connection conditions are included, which were received earlier in the area, but have not yet been resolved. Such an investor gets a refusal, and later it turns out that these earlier applications were rejected, or investments remain only on paper. Often technically the space in the network is there, only the system does not see it,” Buchta explains.
Enea Operator spokesman Mateusz Gościniak notes that the capacity of RES installations in our country, which were connected in 2021, was originally envisaged until 2040. “The networks were not prepared for such an avalanche of investments,” he added.
As Business Insider notes, a remedy to these problems has been found by Copernic Connect.
“We are proposing a model that is already entrenched in paragraph 9 of Article 7 of the Energy Law. In a situation where an investor receives a refusal to connect to the grid due to a lack of economic conditions, he can apply to sign a commercial contract with the operator, under which he will finance the modernization of the grid. There are already such cases, but they are still unfortunately rare. In order to break this impasse, we need a dialogue and a combination of the knowledge and competence of all participants in the electricity market – grid operators, administration and industry institutions,” explains the company’s head Franciszek Buchta.
The CEO argues that interest in such investments from private business is great.
“The big players are willing to put up their own money to develop power lines. For smaller companies it may not be profitable, but then we can gather a group of those willing in a particular area and share the costs.” – Buchta pointed out.
He estimates that the cost of upgrading 110 kV networks ranges from one million to tens of millions of zlotys. Most often, it is a matter of adapting the line to higher operating temperatures. Sometimes it is enough, for example, to raise a few poles of a power line. In such cases, the expense is not astronomical, and makes it possible to put up more renewable installations in the area, the article stressed.
“The grid needs rapid reinvestment to enable the development of RES, which is necessary to ensure the country’s energy security in the current geopolitical situation, as well as to counter rising electricity prices and protect the climate.” – urges the Copernic Connect CEO.
Grid operators assure that they plan to spend heavily on infrastructure upgrades. PGE Dystrybucja has earmarked more than PLN 2.9 billion for investments this year. Enea Operator spends about PLN 1 billion on this purpose every year, and in five years the outlays are expected to rise to PLN 1.4 billion. Tauron Dystrybucja, on the other hand, invests PLN 2 billion annually in networks, the portal listed.
“However, the needs are much greater. Last year, the five largest distribution network operators signed agreements to connect more than 4,000 new energy sources with a capacity of more than 9.5 GW (an increase of almost 250% and 400%, respectively, compared to 2020). At the end of the first half of 2022, the total capacity of sources, resulting from connection conditions issued by the operators and signed grid connection agreements, was already more than 20.5 GW.” – the article concluded.
Source: Copernic Connect and ISBnews
