On 16-17 February 2022, an online conference entitled “RES Market – Trends, Regulations and Practical Problems” was organised by MM Conferences S.A., a company based in Warsaw. The event featured a series of lectures on topics related to the renewable energy sources market, such as the legal conditions for the RES investment process, the support system for RES energy producers, wind energy in Poland, the regulations and prosumer billing following the amendments of the RES Act and the Energy Law.

Mateusz Górniaczyk, trainee legal counsel from the Energy Law Department, represented our Law Firm in the event. He gave a lecture in which he reviewed the latest and planned legal changes on the market of renewable energy sources, including the Offshore Wind Act, the amendment of the RES Act regarding the reduction of licensing requirements for small plants and the modification of the current prosumption system, as well as the upcoming legislative changes related to the adjustment of the Polish legislation to the EU regulations.

One of the important legal changes discussed during the lecture, which we would like to outline briefly, is the introduction of a new prosumption system through the amendment to the RES Act. Under the new system, known as net-billing, electric energy injected into the grid by a prosumer will be billed to an obligated or selected seller at its market value. The value of energy will be determined on the basis of market quotations for electric energy on the day-ahead market. In practice, energy sold by a prosumer will be much cheaper than the purchased one. The new billing system is to come into force as of 1 April 2022. It is also worth mentioning that the amendment introduces the institutions of a virtual renewable energy prosumer and a collective renewable energy prosumer. The former will be able to set up a renewable energy installation on a building that does not belonging to them and still produce energy directly for their own needs. The latter will be able to set up renewable energy installations on multi-apartment buildings and deduct the surplus of produced electricity from the inhabitants’ bills. This will enable groups of energy consumers, who have not had such an opportunity so far, to benefit from the support for prosumer energy. It should be stressed, however, that in general the new system will be less favourable to new prosumers than the current one. The changes will expose prosumers to greater investment risk associated with a longer period of return from the built RES system.

The conference enabled an exchange of opinions and discussing very topical issues and problems with the application of the RES market regulations. The information obtained by our team during the event will certainly be applied by specialists from our Energy Law Department in order to provide comprehensive legal services.