First time to restrictions on renewable energy production occurred in December 2022. Polish Power Grids then announced the need to balance the system due to low power demand, it was necessary to reduce wind generation throughout the country by 400 MW to 800 MW. Since then, curtailment, i.e. forced limitation of electricity production by the operator, has been repeated several times.
The Energy Forum points out that in March this year, 44 GWh from photovoltaic farms did not enter the network. But already in mid-April, restrictions affected another 50 GWh in just one week.
The energy infrastructure in Poland was designed with controllable and centralized coal-fired power plants in mind, which is reflected in the era of accelerated transition to green energy. Energy distribution problems are increasingly felt by prosumers when their inverters automatically turn off during periods of increased energy production and network congestion.
Monika Morawiecka from the Regulatory Assistance Project points out that the same mechanisms are used today not only in Poland. – In Germany last year, as much as 22 percent. energy from offshore wind farms was not fed into the grid due to the lack of appropriate transmission infrastructure from the north to the south of the country, he notes.
Reasons for cutting off renewable energy sources
PSE may “cut” renewable energy sources for two reasons – network and balance. While energy from renewable energy sources could fit into the grid itself, the system must adapt to the operation of the most important sources – i.e. coal-fired power plants that are inflexible and slow to “accelerate”. If PSE allowed full production from PV, most coal-fired power plants would have to be shut down completely. After sunset, they would not have time to “rise” because it takes several hours to start the coal block.
SolarPower Europe and 18 other European associations dealing with renewable energy sources also draw attention to the specific waste of energy. – Forced reduction of energy production from renewable sources, especially from large-scale photovoltaics, is a problem that is becoming more and more serious every year.
Not only from the perspective of the solar industry, but also from the perspective of the entire economy, this is simply a waste of cheap green energy, which the Polish industry needs to maintain the competitiveness of its products on foreign markets. The more domestic production from renewable energy sources, the less dependence of the economy on hydrocarbon imports, says Dariusz Mańka from the Polish Photovoltaics Association, one of the signatories of the appeal.
Why do we waste energy and have problems with compensation? How not to waste energy? More on this later in the article on WysokieNapiecie.pl
