Energy Regulatory Office Electricity Market: The President of URE Announces Final Results of The 2029 Main Power Supply Market Auction - News

The closing price of power capacity obligations for Polish physical units was 264.9 PLN/kW/year. To compare, the closing price for foreign units located in the synchronous profile zone was 247.87 PLN/kW/year, while the units from the Swedish transmission grid area purchased for 264.9 PLN/kW/year.

The total power capacity obligations resulting from the December 2029 Main Auction amount to more than 8 GW, of which just over 1.5 GW are under foreign unit contracts. As a result of all the auctions held so far for the electricity supply in 2029, 20.36 GW have been contracted.

Figure 1. Closing price of the 2021-2029 Main Power Supply Market Auctions for Polish units (PLN/kW/year)

Details of the auction resolution can be found in The President of URE Notice No. 2/2025 published on the URE Public Information Bulletin (PIB URE).

What is the power market?

The power market is a regulatory tool whose main objective is to ensure long-term security of electricity supply for the Polish grid^[1]. The contracting of power capacity obligations is intended to encourage power companies to build new generating units and upgrade the existing ones. Another objective of the applicable legislation is to animate energy consumption management and make electricity demand more flexible.

The introduction of the capacity market has translated into a change in the architecture of the energy market from a single-commodity type to a dual-commodity market, where not only the electricity generated, but also the net available capacity, meaning the readiness to supply electricity to the grid, is subject to buy and sell transactions.

The power market units to provide such capacity service for an appropriate payment are selected from the bidders in a Dutch auction, which involves iterative rounds of lowest bidding. Power market units that are eligible to participate in the auction, after successfully completing the certification process, leave the auction process when the price of the next round no longer provides them with the expected payment for their power capacity. As a result, auctions are won by the lowest bidders while respecting the principle of technology neutrality.

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• The cost of the power market in 2025 is just over PLN 6.4 billion.
• On 2 January 2025, the general certification for the 2030 Main Power Supply Market Auction began. Applications can be submitted to PSE until 16 January 2025.
• Following the repeal of Article 11 of the Power Market Act (Dz. U. 2023.2131), passing the general certification is no longer mandatory for all physical generating units with a minimum gross generating capacity of 2 MW. The general certification is only mandatory for operators willing to participate in further power market processes, which means the certification for eligibility for the auction, as well as power auctions or the secondary market.
• Power suppliers may include:
  • Demand reduction units, which are operators or groups capable of reducing energy consumption;
  • Generation units, which are operators authorised to supply electricity to the grid, like electrical power plants or CHP plants;
  • Energy storage units.
• The power supplier support program is scheduled to operate until 2046.