CIGRE Polska – one of 58 national committees acting on behalf of Conseil International des Grands Réseaux Électriques (CIGRE), the world’s largest international association of experts dealing with issues related to the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. CIGRE Poland (formerly the Polish Committee of Large Electrical Networks) acts on behalf of CIGRE, promoting the association’s activities in Poland. It currently has 97 supporting members and over 100 full members.
PSE AND THE ENVIRONMENTMembership of organisations
International industry organisations and associations of which PSE is a member
Cooperation within CCRs – Poland is included in three capacity calculation regions (CCRs): CORE, Baltic and Hansa, established on the proposal of all TSOs by decision of the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) in November 2016. Through the working structures of the above-mentioned regions, representatives of the individual TSOs, including PSE, carry on work aimed to implement market mechanisms whose design will ensure the capability for efficient, unconstrained and secure cross-border commercial exchange of electricity. The activities cover all market segments – from long-term markets, through the Day-Ahead Market (in the form of Market Coupling mechanism), to the Intra-Day Market – and they are related, among other things, to the implementation of a coordinated capacity calculation process, including the allocation of costs of remedial actions used in the process and implementation of the Market Coupling mechanism at the NPS interconnections.
Polish Committee for Standardisation (PKN) ─ a national standardisation body that is responsible for organising standardisation activities. PKN is a public law entity (it is not a government administration body).
Partnership for the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a partnership between the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology and representatives of more than 100 entities, including PSE, for the implementation of sustainable development goals. These goals are the content of the UN Agenda 2030: Global Plan for Sustainable Development adopted by the UN in 2015, referred to in short as the Agenda 2030. The Agenda has set out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the implementation of which is to contribute to building a more sustainable future, in particular to eliminating social and economic inequalities, while ensuring simultaneous development connected with preserving the natural environment in the best possible condition, and limiting the negative effects of climate changes (Goal No. 13).
Responsible Business Forum – the largest non-governmental organisation in the country dealing with CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Its mission is to promote sustainable development, inspire business that changes the world, and to integrate people who change business. The association was set up in 2000 on the initiative of business, academic and NGO communities, and it has the public benefit organisation status. Since 2002, the Forum has been the national partner of CSR Europe – a network of organisations promoting the concept of responsible business in Europe.
Sports and Tourism Society “Sport i Energia” (“Sport and Energy”) – an organisation founded by PSE employees in 1998. The organisation pursues its statutory objectives by providing affiliated and non-affiliated employees of PSE with access to sports facilities, opportunities for participation in organised sports competitions, and to represent PSE in sports competitions within the energy sector, and by supporting the integration of company employees.
Safe Work Leaders Forum – an organisation operating at the Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute, currently associating 180 companies and institutions that can be set as an example with regard to issues related to safe work culture. The purpose of the Leaders Forum is to build partnerships between its members, as well as employers and employees who draw on the achievements of science and technology, especially those developed by CIOP-PIB, in shaping working conditions. In 2023, PSE received a “green card” as a safe work leader.
Agreement for Safety in Construction – a declaration of cooperation with the Agreement for Safety in Construction was signed in May 2023. The agreement was signed in order to strengthen the building of a culture of occupational safety and health, the implementation of common goals and actions related to safety in the construction and energy industries, openness to communication and experience sharing, providing substantive and organisational resources for cooperation in the implementation of the goals set out in the declaration, the development of a common strategy of activities, the development of common guidelines to improve the level of safety in accordance with the relevant goal declared, the continuous improvement of occupational safety and health management systems in ongoing projects, which will serve to improve the safety of people employed there.
Involvement in international industry organisations in climate change mitigation efforts
Membership of the ENTSO-E Research, Development & Innovation Committee (RDIC)
RDIC – plays a key role in the development of the pan-European grid and the achievement of Europe’s ambitious 2050 decarbonisation goals. ENTSO-E and its TSO members share a common vision for meeting the key challenges. RDIC R&D activities undertaken by TSOs are complementary to the work carried out by universities, research institutes and equipment manufacturers. Transmission system operators focus on integrating new technologies. The development of new grid equipment, modelling methods and grid architecture enables European TSOs to fulfil their missions in an evolving power system.
The RDIC structure mainly consists of working groups (WGs) and task forces (TFs), and the PSE has representation in each of them:
The active presence of PSE representatives in RDIC structures strengthens the position of the Polish transmission system operator – by ensuring its influence on decisions regarding the implementation of new technologies in the power sector – and allows it to follow current trends.
Significant efforts to mitigate climate change are being made by the Assets and Technologies Group and focus primarily on developing ENTSO-E’s position on the use of sulphur hexafluoride in the electric power industry and the search for alternative gases. The second direction of the group’s work concerns the monitoring of high-voltage cable systems and the search for lead-free cable design solutions.
Reducing carbon footprint as part of WG1’s work
The RDIC’s WG1 Assets and Technologies working group focuses on grid asset management issues. Part of WG1’s work addresses the issue of reducing the carbon footprint of network operators’ activities, which is in line with European Union legislation targeting climate neutrality by 2050. The most important outcome of the carbon footprint team’s work is expected to be the development of a common, transparent methodology and a unified approach to data selection and collection in order to achieve comparability of the TSOs’ carbon footprint. A database is planned to be created containing the necessary information to assess the environmental impact of power system assets, taking into account their entire life cycle, expressed in terms of CO2 equivalent. The ultimate goal is to achieve comparability of the TSOs and, consequently, to contribute to changes in CO2 management procedures and reductions in emissions from operations and assets managed by operators. Recently, the group has produced a document titled: “Towards sustainable energy infrastructure: a comprehensive report on greenhouse gas emission reduction initiatives in European Transmission System Operators”, which includes:
- a review of the TSOs’ activities and involvement in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the development of a common methodology for uniform reporting in this regard;
- a description of the innovative measures needed to continue reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
- characteristics of emission reduction approaches including equipment optimisation, environmentally sensitive procurement policies, grid management, renewable energy integration and equipment supplier engagement, consistent with international GHG accounting protocols;
- communicating a common position of TSOs and building awareness among stakeholders.
The document clearly indicates that transmission grid operators are involved in reducing emissions in all operational scopes through innovative technologies and sustainable practices (e.g. life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis in investment decisions).