The news on the Polish market is that the President of the Energy Regulatory Authority (“ERA”) has initiated administrative proceedings in order to impose financial penalties for incompliance with the limitations on electricity consumption that were introduced between 10 and 31 August 2015 in order to prevent blackouts. Some entities accused of such breaches have already received warnings.
Many such breaches took place in the period between 10 and 11 August 2015, when the limitations were introduced by the Transmission System Operator (“TSO”). However, it should be noted that the possibility to impose penalties for exceeding the electricity consumption limitations set solely by the TSO is questionable under the Polish Energy Law. The issue is controversial because there are no clear legal grounds and the provisions regarding administrative penalties should be interpreted narrowly. There is also a number of other grounds limiting the off-takers liability. Therefore, this may lead to a series of disputes between electricity off-takers and the President of the ERA.
