The Polish Ministry of Energy has unveiled a draft strategy for the decarbonisation of district heating by 2040, which relies on extensive electrification and Power-to-Heat technologies. The investment needed is estimated at between 197 and 231 billion zlotys, and the document is now in its final consultation phase. While industry associations broadly accept the direction, key disputes remain over the role of cogeneration and the choice of specific technologies.
Poland’s district heating system is unique in Europe: 64 percent of its heat comes from combined heat and power – nearly double the EU average. The network supplies around 15 million customers via 23,000 kilometres of pipelines. Currently, 57.4 percent of fuel used is hard coal and 15.2 percent is natural gas. The strategy envisages raising the share of renewables to 52.2 percent by 2040, supported by thermal storage capacity of 576 GWh.
A costly but necessary shift
Marcin Laskowski, president of the Polish District Heating Association and vice-president of Polska Grupa Energetyczna, welcomes the general direction. – The strategy not only sets the overall goal of phasing out fossil fuels in favour of low- and zero-emission sources, but also emphasises the need to maintain security of supply and acceptable heat costs for consumers – he notes. However, he warns that local, dispatchable cogeneration must be preserved as a guarantor of stability for the national power system. A simulation for the city of Rzeszów showed that switching off combined heat and power plants step by step and converting them to Power-to-Heat sources could lead to serious problems in the electricity grid.
Disputes over technology mix
Paweł Lachman, head of the Polish Organisation for the Development of Heat Pump Technologies, points to flaws in the strategy. He criticises the fact that the document treats heat pumps as equivalent to other Power-to-Heat sources such as electric boilers. – A heat pump delivers several units of heat from one unit of electricity by using ambient or waste heat. An electric boiler converts electricity to heat almost one-to-one and should serve primarily to absorb surplus renewable energy – he explains. The strategy plans for 5.5 GWt of Power-to-Heat capacity, of which 3.07 GWt are electric boilers. – This means that less efficient boilers have a larger share of planned capacity than heat pumps – Lachman adds.
He also argues that the strategy focuses too much on the role of district heating in balancing the electricity system and too little on classic sector coupling, which should reduce fossil fuel consumption through efficient electric technologies, heat storage, and improved energy efficiency.
The Polish District Heating Association insists that a hybrid model is necessary. Electrification, Power-to-Heat and thermal storage are essential, but they cannot fully replace the role of local, dispatchable cogeneration. The association stresses that local specifics, not a bird’s-eye view of the sector, should determine which sources are built.
A broader perspective on the entire heating sector will have to wait for the long-term energy strategy (Polityka Energetyczna Polski) up to 2050, which the ministry is already working on. – Electrification of heat cannot remain a side effect of the transformation – it must become one of the main, measurable goals of Polish energy policy – Lachman concludes.
Źródło: WNP.PL, Fot. Kacper Świsłowski / PTWP
