Polish Regulator and consumers urge the energy sector to implement smart grid

On 3^rd of June, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office, the President of the Polish National Energy Conservation Agency and the biggest organizations protecting consumers and customers of energy signed Declaration concerning the introduction of smart grid into the Polish power system.

Signatories of the memorandum agreed that energy customers in Poland cannot be deprived of the benefits, which are created by new technologies , therefore have obliged to monitor the introduction of smart metering in a way that the energy customers gain as many benefits as possible and to take every possible step serving the interests of the customers.

Moreover, underlined the necessity of spreading the costs of introducing the system in a way that would bring benefits to all participants of the power market, and recommended that the same intelligent metering system, dedicated generally to the electricity, can be used in the same way by the gas, heating and water sectors as well. Smart grid and smart metering improves energy efficiency and consumer welfare - it should be developed in Poland as soon as it is only possible. Implementation of this system should be monitored by consumers and regulators to make sure that all the market players, and especially end - users, will benefit from it. Thanks to smart grid the Regulator will be able to develop quality regulation - said Mariusz Swora, Ph.D., President of the ERO.

At the end, Signatories ordered all institutions, organizations and enterprises, especially those connected with Polish power sector, to effective support and active participation both in promoting this solution as well as its implementation.

The signed Declaration has an open form. More details can be found in the full version of document.

Signing the declaration is the next step of Polish ERO in the campaign promoting smart grid project, after presenting feasibility study autumn last year (available in Polish on www.ure.gov.pl).

The cost of smart grid project in Poland estimated to 7.5 billion PLN. (approx. 2 billion € ).