Energy Efficiency Law

This Act transposes Directive 2006/32/EC into Polish law, establishing the legal framework for stimulating investment in energy efficiency in Poland. The system is based on the obligation of the specified entities to obtain and present for cancellation to the President of the Energy Regulatory Authority specified number of certificates of energy efficiency (the so called white certificates) or the payment of a replacement fee. This obligation has been imposed on energy companies selling electricity, heat and natural gas to end-users connected to the Polish network, as well as end-users of energy and brokerage houses and commodity brokerage houses, conducting transactions on a commodity exchange market.

Following the issuance of the EEL, the Ministry of Economic Affairs issued secondary legislation to enable the EEL to enter into force: Decree of 10 August 2012 that detailed the procedure of energy efficiency audit and describes the methods of computing energy savings; Decree of 4 September 2012 on computing primary energy savings for the purpose of the White Certificate System (WCS) and the compensation fee in the system; Decree of 23 October 2012 on the procedures of the bid for the White Certificates and listed the eligible energy efficiency means eligible in the WCS.

The original EEL was amended on 10 October 2012, dropping the articles that defined specific requirements of the energy efficiency auditors. This move was mainly induced by the government's policy to open different occupations to make the market of services they provide more competitive and flexible.
The extent of the current Energy Efficiency Law (EEL) is limited to 2016 and due to some legal constraints the bill cannot be amended. Therefore the law is planned to be replaced by a new legal act that will extend the duration of energy efficiency law beyond 2016.