In this paper, selected aspects of the national technical level of electric energy supply security is shown. An analysis and assessment of the electric power infrastructure in area of generation, transmission and distribution in aspects of electric energy security is conducted. The profile of the generation sector and grid infrastructure in the area of transmission and distribution is shown. The present and future situation in a range of operation of electric power infrastructure in the area of generation, transmission and distribution in the frames of the National Electric Power System in the electric energy supply security context is determined. The level of national electric energy supply security in area of generation and grid infrastructure is assessed. Threats of electric energy supply security are described and the catalogue of essential actions for the assurance of electric energy supply security are proposed. In the area of electricity generation, at present there is no danger to the electricity supply security in normal load conditions, but there is a high probability that it will occur in the future (after 2025) when the forecasted increase in electricity demand takes place and the new stringent environment protection requirements (Directive IED, BAT conclusions, Winter Package) enter into force. The network infrastructure in area of transmission and distribution is admittedly adapted for presently occurred typical conditions of electric energy demand and the realization of internal tasks in normal conditions, but can create a potential threat for electric energy supply security. In the context of the forecasted increase of electric energy demand, inadequate power generation sources in the National Electric Power System and available through intersystem connections, their uneven location on the territory of Poland in the shortage of proper network transmission capacities, the necessity of improvement of the quality and electric energy supply reliability to final consumers and the intensive development of renewable energy sources, the present network infrastructure in area of transmission and distribution will be insufficient.
According to International Energy Agency (IEA) energy security is the continuous supply of energy at acceptable prices. National energy is based primarily on its own energy resources such as hard coal and brown coal. The 88% of electric energy production from these minerals gives us full energy independence. Additionally, the energy production costs from these raw materials are the lowest compared to other technologies. Of these two, the energy produced from brown coal is characterized by the lowest unit technical generating cost. Poland has the resources of these minerals for decades to come, the experience related to mining and processing them, scientific and design facilities and technical facilities and factories producing machines and equipment for their own needs, as well as for export. Coal is and should remain an important source of electricity and heat supply in Poland for the next 25–50 years. It is one of the most reliable and profitable energy sources. This policy may be difficult in the next decades due to the exhaustion of the available resources of hard and brown coal. The conditions for the construction of new mines, and thus for the development of coal mining in Poland, are very interdisciplinary in legal, environmental, economic and reputational terms. Germany has similar problems. Despite the fact that it is an image of a country investing in renewable energy sources, which are pioneers of energy production from RES, in reality hard and brown coal are still the primary sources utilized to produce electric energy.
The article compares the management of energy resources in Poland and Ukraine over the period 2000–2017. The analysis took changes in the volume of coal, oil and natural gas resources into consideration. The indicators of supplies of these fuels for Poland and Ukraine have additionally been compared with selected EU countries. In order to assess energy security of Poland and Ukraine, the changes in the primary energy consumption have been analyzed in general in first order, then the possibilities of meeting the demand for natural gas, coal and oil have been determined based on the domestic extraction of individual energy resources. Such a comparison indicates the dominant role of coal in Poland while the extraction of oil and natural gas meets the domestic demand to a greater extent in Ukraine. Over the period 2000-2017, trends in primary energy consumption were different; a 17% increase was noted in Poland, while a nearly 40% decline was noted in Ukraine. The main factors responsible for radical changes in fuel and energy management in Ukraine have been identified: military operations in the east of the country and the annexation of Crimea, demographic changes. These events had a negative impact especially on the volume of hard coal mining in Ukraine; the significant increase in imports from 5.36 to 19.14 million tons in 2011-2017 was necessary for balancing. The balance of foreign exchange for electricity was also compared. Over the past years, this comparison has been favorable for Ukraine, where the dominance of electricity exports over imports is noticeable, which generated revenues of over USD 200 million in 2017.
The paper presents the idea of a prosumer energy cloud as a new service dedicated to electricity prosumers. The implementation of the cloud should generate a number of benefits in the following areas: settlements between prosumer and electricity supplier, the development of distributed energy sources in microprocessors and the development of e-mobility. From the prosumer point of view, the proposed idea of a prosumer cloud of energy is dedicated to the virtual storage of energy excess generated in the micro-installation. Physical energy storage in the cloud means recording the volume of electricity introduced into the electricity system from the prosumer’s microprocessors. It is assumed that the energy equivalent to the volume registered in the prosumer cloud can be used at any time at any point in the network infrastructure of the National Power System. Any point of network infrastructure shall be understood as any locally located point of connection of an electricity consumer provided with access authorization. From the point of view of the power grid operators, the idea of a prosumer energy cloud is a conceptual proposition of a service dedicated to the new model of the power system functioning, taking future conditions concerning the significant development of prosumer energy and e-mobility into account. In this concept, electricity would be treated as a commodity only to partial physical storage and above all to trade. In this model a key aspect would be virtual energy storage, that is, the commercial provision by the cloud operator (trading company) of any use of the electricity portfolio by its suppliers. It should be stressed, however, that in the prosumer’s energy cloud functioning, a significant factor would be the cost of guarantees of the use of energy by prosumers at any time and point of connection to the network. This results in the need of taking the presence of certain market risks, both volumetric and cost incurred by clouds operator, which can be minimized by passing a portion of the accumulated volume of generated energy to the cloud operator into account. It should be emphasized that this article presents the first phase of the development of the concept of prosumer energy cloud. However, it is planned to be expanded by the following stages, which include the possibility of controlling and supervising the operation of prosumer installations such as: sources, receivers and physical energy stores, e.g. home energy storage or batteries installed in electric vehicles. Ultimately, it is assumed that the proposed prosumer energy cloud will be outside of the storage of energy (virtual and partly physical) and that aggregation of prosumer resources will create new possibilities for their use to provide a variety of regulatory services, including system ones.
This paper presents the main dilemma of development of the Polish energy sector on the 20th anniversary of the first liberalization directive of the European Union, which created the energy market. The situation in the Polish energy sector based on fossil fuels, its transformation into lower emission one is closely connected to the process of restructuring and further development of the mining sector. On the other hand, we are witnessing the development of RES, household installations producing electricity with storage and the electrification of public transport. The investments in new, large scale fossil fuel fired power plants are very expensive and not economically proven when electricity prices are low. Until the new direction of investment in energy sector will be decided, the option of the lasting of the operating existing power units seems to be a good proposal. Is the thesis: “The energy security of Poland should be fully based on indigenous sources, generation and distribution assets, delivering electricity to end users. Ensuring competitive energy prices to the economy and households, the market should be fully open to producers and consumers, including chip electricity arising from the European single market” the right assumption for the Polish energy policy?
The study presents the summary of the knowledge of energy-active segments of steel buildings adapted to obtain electrical energy (EE) and thermal energy (TE) from solar radiation, and to transport and store TE. The study shows a general concept of the design of energy-active segments, which are separated from conventional segments in the way that allows the equipment installation and replacement. Exemplary solutions for the design of energy-active segments, optimised with respect to the principle of minimum thermal strain and maximum structural capacity and reliability were given [34]. The following options of the building covers were considered: 1) regular structure, 2) reduced structure, 3) basket structure, 4) structure with a tie, high-pitched to allow snow sliding down the roof to enhance TE and EE obtainment. The essential task described in the study is the optimal adaptation of energy-active segments in large-volume buildings for extraction, transportation and storage of energy from solar radiation.