Energy market: Updated guidelines for the contents of small DSO development plans
The President of the URE (Energy Regulatory Office) has prepared updated guidelines to ensure uniformity of development plans made by small distribution system operators (sDSO) who serve up to one hundred thousand electricity consumers. The deadline for sDSO development plan, their update or their performance progress report submission to the URE is 30 April 2026.
Pursuant to the Polish Energy Law, each electricity DSO is required to prepare its business development plan focused on meeting the current and future demand for electrical power, with the plan horizon of at least six years, and the plan to be updated every two years[1]. DSO development plans require approval of the President of the URE who cooperates for such approval with the cognizant Polish minister of energy[2].
DSOs, being power companies, are also required by law to submit their development plan performance progress reports.
To ensure uniformity of the development plans submitted by sDSOs who serve up to 100,000 electricity consumers, the President of the URE has developed updated guidelines for SDO development plan contents, along with tabulated forms to be appended with the plans, for their updates, and plan performance progress reports. The guidelines establish the minimum scope of the sDSO development plan and its updates.
The mandatory approval of the sDSO development plans by the President of the URE is waived for:
- power companies who distribute electricity to less than 300 consumers with a total annual supply of less than 150 GWh;
- the DSOs whose systems were qualified by the President of the URE as closed distribution systems operated commercially by the DSO’s business within such qualification.
In 2024 and for large DSOs who serve at least 100,000 consumers, the President of URE prepared the guidelines for power system development directions and priority investment project implementation, along with a questionnaire and forms used in the process of approving the large DSO development plans applicable to the 2026-2031 horizon.