In the final days of July and in the final leg of processing the RES Act amendments, the Polish Parliament introduced concise and transparent cable-pooling provisions. While final approval of the lower chamber is expected by August 17, 2023, the uniform backing of cable-pooling in the recent voting allows to assume that the proposed solution will enter in force already in the final quarter of 2023.

The cable-pooling framework will now recognize the concurrent use of electricity interconnections by multiple, independent generators for installations with connection voltage exceeding 1 kV. It is open to both the expansion of existing installations and to green-field projects. Aggregated installed capacity of pooled installations may exceed the reserved connection capacity.

One subsidy principle

Only one of the pooled installations may participate in RES subsidy schemes. In the case of existing installations already enjoying a subsidy (either in the legacy form of green certificates, FIT/FIP or the two-sided CfD under the auction scheme) this means that additional pooled installations would have to be merchant based. Where an auction backed green field project is developed, it will have to connect first, before other pooled merchant projects may be connected to the grid. Those limitations will impact project schedules and completion timelines.

Cable-pooling projects including a subsidized RES installation will have to be notified to the President of the Energy Regulatory Office (ERO).

Key requirements

Cable pooling requires negotiating a cooperation agreement among interested generators, obtaining connection terms reflecting the setup of pooled installations and agreeing with the interconnecting DSO or TSO technical safety solutions that will prevent those installations from exceeding the reserved connection capacity. Once in place, equipment designed to ensure safe operating limits will be controlled by the interconnecting system operator.

Each installation will require its own metering point and devices. When expanding an existing installation this could lead to installing additional, individual meters on top of equipment placed close to the connection point, which will capture the aggregated output.

Generators will assume risk based, joint and several liability towards the interconnecting DSO or TSO for maintaining output within the limits of reserved connection capacity.

Cooperation agreement

Generators will need to enter into a dedicated cooperation agreement, selecting one representative that in the common interest would become party to the transmission or distribution services agreement, interface with the interconnecting system operator and, if required, with the ERO President.

In the past, Dentons’ Energy team developed and implemented a bankable cooperation agreement matching the list of requirements that will now apply to cable-pooling projects, historically tested on a utility scale multi-staged investment in wind generation. Lessons learned show that the currently proposed setup allows to adequately manage risks and obligations of the involved parties.

Market access and balancing arrangement

Each pooled generator will retain an independent right to access market revenue, whether based on a bilateral power purchase agreement or through the power exchange. However, only the selected representative will remain a party to the transmission or distribution services agreement and manage imbalances. This requires corresponding arrangements covering the balancing of all supply contracts, as other pooled generators will need to rely on this single balancing arrangement and the choice of the balancing responsible party (single BRP principle).