What goes on in Poland on the 17th of August.
President signed the amendment to the RES Act
On Monday the President’s Chancellery announced that the head of state signed the amendment to the Renewable energy sources act (RES act). The amendment’s basic assumption is to eliminate the fixed value of the so-called alternative fee and instead link it with market prices of certificates of energy origin issued for specified renewable energy sources.
The amendment eliminates the fixed value of the so-called alternative fee, which is PLN 300.03 per MWh. Instead it links the fee with the market prices of certificates of energy origin issued for specified renewable energy sources, i.e. green certificates (in practice this is about wind turbines) and blue certificates (agricultural biogas). The fee will be now worth 125% of the average price of the given certificates from the previous year, but not more than PLN 300.03 per MWh.
The support system for renewable energy sources is based on property rights. A producer who generates energy from renewable energy sources is allowed to sell the produced power and in addition receives a certificate for every 1 MWh. The document is a property right and can be sold either on the exchange or in an individual OTC transaction. The sale price is to support the producer. Whereas sellers of energy to end users have to possess an amount of certificates that matches their sales volume, which means they have to buy them, or pay the so-called alternative fee.
Due to oversupply, the market price of green certificates dropped by 90% within a few years. The authors of the bill believe that that linking the alternative fee with the market price will increase interest in certificates and a gradual reduction of the oversupply.
Gaz-System working on a new gas pipeline
Gaz-System, Poland’s transmission system operator, started to drill a bore hole under the San river to install the Hermanowice-Strachocina gas pipeline. The horizontal opening will be about 1 km long and will be the longest of this kind in Poland.
On Monday, the company’s spokesman Tomasz Pietrasieński announced that the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) started in the village of Mrzygłód in the Sanok district. The bore hole is one of Gaz-System’s biggest challenges when it comes to the Hermanowice-Strachocina project. „This is caused not only by the length of the bore hole, but also the fact that the hole is drilled in a rock formation,” Pietrasieński explained.
The first phase of the project includes the drilling of the so-called pilot bore hole to install a pipeline with a 200 mm diameter, which during the works will serve as a reverse flow for the drilling fluid and once the project is over will be used as a protective pipe for fiber lines.
Andrzej Duda announced new investments in Polish army
During the main event of the Polish Armed Forces Day in Warsaw, the President said that „there is only one Polish army, it cannot be divided.” He stressed that as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces he always tries to perform his duties as best he can and always encourages dialogue. „The Polish army is the army of the Republic of Poland, not a private army,” he stressed.
The President also commented on the modernization of the Polish army. „There are various ideas, different visions, but I am sure that all politicians in Poland understand that the common good is the most important issue and the common good is first and foremost Poland. This is the army of the Republic of Poland, this is nobody’s private army, this is an army that we have to shape together, an army that defends Poland with the lives of its soldiers,” he pointed.
„I believe that we will modernize the Polish army and increase its numbers in a calm and smart manner (…) We need our soldiers to be well trained, we need our military reserves to be trained. There is one Polish army and it cannot be split into different kinds of militaries (…) ,” he added.
