The Supreme Audit Office audited the Ministry of Climate and Environment, the Energy Regulatory Office, the Settlement Manager and electricity trading companies. The audit covered the period from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2020.
“In the offices of the minister responsible for energy, there were units responsible for preparing system solutions and conducting system analyzes of the electricity market. However, there was no information proving any activities that would result in collecting the results of analyzes, including those related to the phenomena shaping the ee price in Poland. she assessed the failure to conduct cyclical analyzes of the energy market in 2016-2020 as unreliable. In the opinion of the Supreme Audit Office, the failure to systematically monitor events on the energy market could have contributed to a too late legislative initiative regarding the act on ee prices, “the report reads.
Meanwhile, in the second decade of the 21st century, the European Union consistently strove for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2015, the European Parliament adopted a directive limiting the supply of CO2 emission allowances (entered into force in 2018), which increased the prices of CO2 emission allowances, and this led to an increase in the prices of electricity generated from fossil fuels. The Minister of Energy received many signals regarding the increase in energy prices, including from the President of the Energy Regulatory Office (ERO). He informed about the scale required by the four entrepreneurs performing the function of the so-called office sellers raise energy prices from 30 to 35 percent.
NIK: Act without consultation
In view of the surge in energy prices and the forecast for 2019, the Minister of Energy in September 2018 began work on an act aimed at protecting domestic consumers against increases in fees in 2019.
“The draft law on prices and the amendment introduced to it, with the consent of the prime minister, were processed in a separate procedure. This meant that none of these government documents was referred to ministerial arrangements or public consultations. Neither of them was reviewed by the Council. Legislation by the Prime Minister, the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers, a legal commission, the President of the ERO or other competent entity “- we read further.
Both government documents contained in their justifications the applicant authority’s declaration of their compliance with EU law. The compliance of the proposed legal solutions with EU law was assessed by the employees of ME and did not commission additional analyzes to other entities. Along with the draft act and its self-amendments, no draft regulation of fundamental importance for its functioning was prepared. The Regulatory Impact Assessment attached to the draft act lacked information on the data sources used to prepare it and on the assumptions made in the calculations. The sources from which the planned changes were to be financed were also not indicated, despite the fact that the previous activities of ME indicated that the source would be revenues from the sale of greenhouse gas emission allowances. The assessment also did not include an analysis of possible consequences for the power sector, including loss of revenues or an increase in imports (wholesale prices abroad were lower) – indicated the Chamber.
Any law
NIK notes that none of the energy trading companies participated in any form in the works on the original bill.
“The Sejm adopted the law on December 28, 2018. Since then, the law has been amended four times. The first time after less than two months. The last – in July 2019, i.e. after half a year of its validity. The first two and the last amendments were processed as deputies’ bills. This meant that there was no regulatory impact assessment and no consultations with the public and interested entities. The third was processed by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology. In the opinion of the Supreme Audit Office, this proves not only the unreliable preparation of the first draft and subsequent amendments, but also a failure to comply with the principle. stability and certainty of legal regulations for entities covered by these regulations “- it was indicated in the material.
NIK noted that the preparation of the act on energy prices was followed by work on the regulation on the method of calculating the amount of the price difference and financial compensation and the method of determining reference prices. It was only released over six months later. Work on the regulation began only after the act entered into force, and according to the law it should come into force together with the act on the basis of which it is issued. Invited to work on the ordinance include, inter alia, President of the ERO and representatives of industry organizations. They were given four days to submit comments, despite the fact that the Work Regulations of the Council of Ministers provided for 10 days. The minister justified the reduction in time with a higher public interest. Subsequently, the work was postponed until the compliance of the proposed regulation with European law was clarified.
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