We provide electricity transmission and power system access services while meeting the required criteria for the operational security of the National Power System (NPS). The operator’s actions are determined by legislation governing the electricity sector, both Polish and European, as well as security of electricity supply and technical development. Consequently, we are an enterprise of considerable importance to public order and security, and of particular significance to the Polish economy. PSE is also a member of the European association of operators ENTSO-E.

The tasks performed by PSE as the transmission system operator come down to five basic categories:

1. Quality and ongoing security of electricity supply.
2. Adequacy of the national transmission grid.
3. Operation of the national central commercial balancing mechanism.
4. International cooperation as part of interconnected power systems and the single European electricity market.
5. Acting as the energy market information operator.

The legal regulations applicable to the transmission system operator defines the technical standards for the transmission system operation and technical resources that the operator should have at its disposal to meet the requirements in this regard. Tasks performed by PSE in this area:

• Balancing of electricity generation against actual demand
  Balancing applies to both very short periods (measured in seconds) and very long ones (measure in hours), and it is performed by using power reserves maintained especially for this purpose. The TSO is required to maintain specific amounts of reserves measured in seconds, minutes and hours. We acquire the first two reserve types by entering into relevant contracts with generators for the so-called “control system services” – this action is preceded by a tendering procedure. The source of the hourly reserve is the balancing market (commercial offers).
• Ensuring compliance with grid operation security criteria
  As the TSO, we are obligated to plan the operation of the grid and the distribution of generation at its individual nodes so that a critical disturbance does not cause a system failure and limitation of electricity supply to consumers. To this end, we develop coordination plans with time horizons ranging from three years to a single day. The plans include both maintenance schedules for grid elements and repair schedules for generating units. In the planning process, we identify constraints on the operation of generating units at the individual grid nodes. We manage these constraints by using the balancing market mechanism or by entering into appropriate agreements with generators.
• Application of preventive and restorative automatic control systems and development of NPS defence and restoration plans
  The TSO also prepares measures to prevent the occurrence of states that pose a risk to the operational stability of the NPS, in particular the propagation of a failure in the transmission system. For this purpose, we use various types of system-related automatic controls that enable quick changes in the grid operation or production level of generating units, plans for shutting down consumers or limiting supply and consumption of electricity, e.g. based on power rationing levels communicated by radio. In the event of a transmission system failure, we have restoration scenarios in place, which even provide for the need to restore the entire national system. In order to enable such scenarios to be executed, the system operator enters into contracts with generators capable of starting up without external power supply (system service).
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As a TSO, we are responsible for the expansion and maintenance of the national transmission grid and its interconnection with the neighbouring countries’ systems. To ensure grid adequacy, our company performs the following tasks:

• Transmission grid expansion planning, taking into account the anticipated changes in the size and geographic distribution of the domestic demand, locations of new generating sources, and grid expansion plans of the neighbouring countries’ operators and distribution system operators.
• Maintaining grid equipment condition to ensure its availability.

Due to the special nature of electricity as a product, there must be a central balancing mechanism and a balance responsible party. The balancing mechanism is to ensure the commercial balancing of electricity market participants in real time and settlement of balancing energy. In Poland, this role is played by the balancing market mechanism through which current balancing of energy market participants is performed on the basis of offers submitted by parties actively participating in the market. The balancing market mechanism has a highly significant impact on other segments of the electricity market as well as decisions on how to use generating resources.

The balancing market rules should ensure:

• equal treatment of all participants,
• transparency of the calculation of clearing prices,
• the possibility of consumer participation (demand response offers),
• creating price signals promoting the operational efficiency of the entire sector.

PSE operates in accordance with both Polish and European legislation, imposing obligations also on other transmission system operators from the European area. Together with other operators, we actively participate in the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), of which we are a member. This way, we participate in building a common electricity market. We are working to promote the reliable operation and development of interconnected power systems while ensuring the security of electricity supply within the EU’s common electricity market.

ENTSO-E consists of 40 transmission system operators from 36 countries. The following are observer members: Turkish operator TEİAŞ and Moldavian operator Moldelectrica.

Fig. 1. ENTSO-E member states

More than 110 representatives of PSE are engaged in the work of ENTSO-E, actively participating in all key tasks at different levels of the organisation.

Our most important task as the Energy Market Information Operator is to establish the Central Energy Market Information System (CSIRE). We will oversee its operation and develop CSIRE by adding further functionalities.

CSIRE is currently in the deployment stage, but when it is in place, it will be a sophisticated ICT system that will gather all the technical and commercial information necessary to operate the retail electricity market. CSIRE will be fed with data from electricity distributors and sellers, among others.

It will also provide space to record and share metering data from electricity meters (obtained and transmitted to CSIRE by electricity system operators). The main advantage of the system will be to reduce the execution time of selected electricity market processes and to create uniform and transparent rules of access to the system for future groups of its users.

Thanks to CSIRE, end users will gain access to electricity market information, including information on the electricity supply contracts that apply to them, information on the electricity seller, metering data, etc. Access to metering data will allow better management of electricity consumption and will help reduce bills. There will also be increased confidence in the accuracy of billing for the sale and distribution of electricity, as CSIRE will be a uniform, reliable and stable source of information.