Photovoltaic owners face major problems. They must wait from July until November.

• On sunny days, photovoltaic installations are unable to feed energy into the grid and shut down. When this happens, prosumers should first report it to distribution network operators. However, they sometimes only arrive for inspections several months later.
• The Energy Regulatory Office wants the Energy Law to include a deadline for distribution network operators to carry out such inspections.
• The Office would also like to enable network operators to refuse to accept a micro-installation notification if, as a result of its connection, the quality parameters of the supplied electricity would not be met.

Complaints received by the Energy Regulatory Office (URE) from prosumers – i.e. consumers who produce electricity in micro-installations and consume it for their own needs – confirm that in Poland there are problems with the operation of micro-installations and the feeding of electricity into the operator's grid.

Especially on sunny days, too much energy from home photovoltaics enters the grid compared to current demand and grid capacity. This results in voltage increases and micro-installations shutting down . Problems arise especially when the number of energy producers in a given grid increases and begins to compare with the number of energy consumers.

This often happens in clusters of single-family homes. The low-voltage grid circuit to which these sources are connected is unable to handle the flow of energy produced, which ultimately degrades the voltage parameters of the entire system.

- we read on the URE website.

The office states that the best and most effective solution to the problem will be energy storage integrated with micro-installations. Another option is self-consumption, i.e., consuming energy where and when it is produced. Responsible use of existing photovoltaic installations , including ensuring correct and optimal inverter configuration, will also be crucial.

To some extent, undesirable voltage increases during electricity generation in micro-installations can be prevented by technical solutions, for example, in the design of the inverters themselves, which prosumers can implement themselves by entrusting the micro-installation installer with the task. Another solution is to set the appropriate inverter control mode.

The Office reminds that maintaining the capacity of devices, installations, and networks to ensure continuous and reliable energy supply, while maintaining applicable quality parameters, is the responsibility of energy companies. Importantly, customers are entitled to appropriate rebates for failure to meet these parameters.

According to the Gramwzielone.pl website, the Energy Regulatory Office is of the opinion that a change is needed in the Energy Law regarding the control of energy quality parameters of prosumers, which should be carried out by network operators .

This refers to Article 49, point 9 of the Electricity System Regulation. According to this provision, an energy company, at the request of a prosumer, should check the quality parameters of electricity at the recipient's point of sale, but the regulation does not specify a deadline for the inspection. For example,

a prosumer observing, for example, too high voltage in the grid in July , which causes the inverter of his photovoltaic micro-installation to turn off, after submitting an application to check compliance with energy quality parameters , waits for the installation of a specialized recorder until November , when the production of energy from renewable energy sources in his environment is already low and the energy quality parameters are already within the norm.

– informs the Energy Regulatory Office. The company informs the prosumer that everything is working properly. Until the next spring/summer season...

However, in many cases, ad hoc measures taken by distribution system operators may not be sufficient, and a definitive solution to the problem will only be possible after a comprehensive modernization of the grid infrastructure, which in Poland spans thousands of kilometers.

Therefore, as reported by Gramwzielone.pl, the Energy Regulatory Office also takes the position that the Energy Law should include regulations enabling network operators to refuse to accept the notification of a micro-installation if, as a result of its connection, the quality parameters of the supplied electricity would not be met.