In September 2018, the amended act on the fuel quality monitoring and control system entered into force. Although it does not echo in the name, its main goal was to fight air pollution, and thus also smog. This is because this is the result of the worst quality combustion wgla in domestic heating stoves and small coal-fired boiler houses operating in housing estates, at hospitals, schools or small production plants (with a nominal thermal power of less than 1 megawatt), states I, which has just completed an audit on the effectiveness of the act in the first months of its application.
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The Ministry of Energy made the fight against smog difficult
“The new regulations were to put the market in order – for example, to limit the inflow of unsorted coal to Poland (a mixture of coal of various quality and size), and to ensure that buyers would only purchase solid fuels that meet certain quality standards. coal – sludge and flotoconcentrates, the combustion of which causes a high concentration of particularly dangerous pollutants in the air – PM10 and PM2.5 dust, which according to the World Health Organization may cause or aggravate respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as various allergies. ” – informs the Supreme Audit Office in a press release.
However, the act required clarification, which was to be issued by the Minister of Energy in the form of a regulation. The ministry’s proposal was criticized both by some of its employees and environmental organizations. Their postulates were partially taken into account and the ordinance of the Ministry of Energy of September 2018 introduced a ban on the sale of coal dust to customers using it as fuel in domestic heating furnaces and local coal-fired boiler houses. However, the ban was postponed for two years and did not enter into force until 2021. To make matters worse, the regulation also concerned methods of testing solid fuels and made it impossible to check their quality. This changed only on July 3, 2019, after the intervention of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. Until then, for nine months, the fight against smog was difficult, and the blame lies with the Ministry of Energy, the Supreme Audit Office ruled.
Control of fuel quality certificates, instead of fuel quality control
According to the law, for providing information that is incorrect with regard to fuel, there is a penalty of PLN 10,000. up to 500,000 PLN or even three years in prison. The audit of the Supreme Audit Office showed that the Trade Inspection, instead of the fuels themselves, had to deal with documents confirming their quality.
In the period from November 2018 to the end of December 2019, the Trade Inspection carried out almost 1,600 inspections of solid fuels. Only 18 percent. cases, a fuel sample was taken. The remaining 82 percent. The inspection concerned formal issues – whether entrepreneurs provide their customers with copies of quality certificates for the goods they sell. As the reason, NIK points to the transfer of control costs to the State Treasury. IN budetach ran out money for research on the physicochemical properties of fuels, despite the fact that he warned against such a situation The office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
The regulation of the then Minister of Energy, Krzysztof Tchórzewski, allowed for the testing of two important parameters. The first is the particle size distribution, which could not be tested, because it could only be done in a laboratory, and the regulation at that time only allowed for testing by an entrepreneur. For nine months, it was not possible to examine the samples in terms of grain size, and in the opinion of the Supreme Audit Office, the uncontrolled granulation of fine coal could favor their illegal mixing with coal waste – sludge and flotoconcentrates, because it is difficult to distinguish them without specialized analysis.
The second important parameter that had to be checked was the sintering ability of lignite. The problem is that laboratories, for substantive reasons, are not accredited to control such things because … lignite does not have the ability to sinter.
Another problem revealed by the Supreme Audit Office was the inspection of sellers against which complaints were filed. The tests are still not carried out immediately, and only when the control of the Trade Inspection carries out an inspection at a point not too distant from the contested place. In this way, money for commuting is to be saved. According to NIK, the fuel quality monitoring and control system is not flexible enough in this case, and thus not fully effective. This is because it does not allow immediate response to disturbing signals related to fuel quality and prevents the use of the results of the ongoing risk analysis carried out by individual WIIHs.
The Minister of Energy made the decision without consultation, NIK wants changes
NIK accuses former Minister of Energy, Krzysztof Tchórzewski, for nine months of problems with control. Problems with examining the parameters of grain size and sintering ability were the result of issuing a regulation on quality standards of coal for sale, which Tchórzewski issued without consultation. As a result of imprecise regulations, the Trade Inspection fined 17 entrepreneurs who sold fuels with parameters higher than indicated in the documents issued by them. UOKiK asked the Minister of Energy to take a position on this matter, who decided that since the main purpose of the amendment to the act was to eliminate low-quality solid fuels from sales, imposing penalties on entrepreneurs introducing fuel with parameters higher than those specified in the certificate on the market was unjustified.
Hence the request of the Supreme Audit Office to the President of UOKiK for changes to the internal regulations governing the organization work Trade Inspection Authority, which will shorten the period from the WIIH obtaining information about possible irregularities in the quality of solid fuels to the inspection at their seller. This will make it possible to investigate the merits of complaints faster than before.
NIK also requests the Minister of Climate and Environment to amend the act on the fuel quality monitoring and control system so that entrepreneurs selling liquid and solid fuels are treated in the same way.
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