The Council of Ministers adopted the draft amendment of the RES Act on 25 June. Our information suggests that it will most likely take place in November or December 2019.
For the wind industry the most important part of the draft are the regulations allowing for an RES auction with 2.5 GW capacity for onshore wind installations above 1 MW to be carried out still this year.
Moreover, the draft amendment also envisages extending the validity of connection agreements for existing RES projects. There will also be a change to the definition of a prosumer, according to which it can be a non-household offtaker, for whom electricity generation in a micro-installation (up to 50 kW) is not a prevailing business activity. According to the motion of the Settlement Manager (Zarządca Rozliczeń SA) there is also a proposal to modify the principles of positive balance settlement, indicating that the return of positive balance should not exceed the negative balance paid to the generator. This modification will be of key importance due to the issue of state aid settlement, where such aid provided to the generator must not constitute the revenue to the settlement operator.
The draft amendment will be then submitted to the Parliament. Our information suggests that in early July the document has not reached the Sejm yet. This means that it could be discussed at the 17-19 July meeting of the Sejm, the last one before parliamentary holidays, and it would be voted in the Senate between 31 July and 2 August. The signing of the Act by the President and its entry into force are planned still before the parliamentary elections in autumn.
The draft can be found at this link (click here).