Poland’s transmission system operator Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE) plans to invest around PLN 4.5 billion (around EUR 1 billion) by 2030 to prepare the grid for the electricity generated at future offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea.
The investment will go toward substations and transmission lines in the Pomerania Province, PSE said.
It is estimated that by 2040 the offshore wind farms will be able to supply the Polish power system with approximately 11 GW of capacity, PSE said. This is the equivalent of about 20 per cent of Poland’s entire production potential today.
Companies investing in offshore wind farms will be responsible for delviering the power from the wind farms to land.
PSE will be in charge of delivering this electricity to other parts of the country.
The TSO has already issued connection conditions for offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 8.4 GW. The first of them will start producing electricity as early as 2026.
Currently, there are few generating units in the Pomerania Province and electricity must be transmitted to it from other regions, PSE said.
The development of offshore wind energy will change this situation – the energy generated offshore Pomerania will flow deep into the country.
To make this possible, PSE must expand the extra-high voltage networks. To send power from offshore wind farms you need, among others, two new power stations and four lines with a voltage of 400 kV, the TSO said.
The development of offshore wind farms in the Polish waters of the Baltic Sea means that more than 250 kilometers of new high-voltage overhead lines must soon be built in the Pomeranian Province alone.
Public consultations on the proposed line routes are underway, both with institutions, local government authorities, and residents of more than 20 communes in the Pomeranian Province. PSE has also started an environmental inventory aimed at obtaining an environmental decision for the investment.
At the beginning of the year, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda signed the Offshore Act into law, which allows for 10.9 GW of offshore wind capacity to be either operational or under development by 2027.
5.9 GW of capacity will be offered via Contracts for Difference by the end of this June. The second phase will include two auctions, each for 2.5 GW, the first in 2025 and the second in 2027.