Polish power grid ready for summer heatwaves – energy ministry

The ministry of energy announced that Poland's electricity grid should not be affected by the forecasted heatwaves this summer. “Taking into account the forecasts of peak demand, steps taken by the operators and favourable hydro situation, there is a minuscule probability of reductions in power consumption due to network overload or lack of the needed power capacities in the system in summer 2017,” Deputy Minister Andrzej Piotrowski said. Earlier this month, market lobby ENTSO-E said that Poland, along with Italy, could be the only electricity grid in Europe affected by the high summer temperatures. “The probability of such a scenario is very small,” Piotrowski added According to ENTSO-E expert Alban Joueau, the situation in Poland will be the most critical between July 17-24, and during daytime consumption peaks between 13-14:00. The situation could be resolved if there was sufficient solar and wind capacity, but that’s not the case in Poland. Such situation occurred back in 2015, when due to heatwaves, the grid operator had to impose curbs on power consumption due to unexpected outages and a heatwave that drained rivers that supply water to cool Poland's outdated coal power plants. According to a recent report by the Weather Company, Poland, along with most of Europe might experience above-average temperatures from June to August.