A 204 MW solar project has become the first large-scale solar power plant to go live on Poland’s balancing market.
The Zwartowo solar power plant, located in northern Poland, was developed and constructed by German solar company Goldbeck Solar. Respect Energy, one of Poland’s leading energy trading and direct marketing companies, is responsible for the asset’s participation in the balancing market as an aggregator.
Affan Ahsan, Head of Asset Management at Goldbeck Solar, told pv magazine that due to recent curtailments and negative prices in the electricity market, the company was looking for opportunities to improve project economics.
“Participating in the balancing market was the clear choice as it is expected to compensate the curtailment losses and add further revenue streams,” Ahsan explained. “We estimated the additional revenue we can get by participating in the balancing market and compared it to the investment and operational effort needed for qualification and decided to proceed as it was very profitable to do so.”
Although the Zwartowo project is legally required to qualify for balancing services due to its installed capacity, Ahsan also shared that the project faced technical barriers to entry due to particularly stringent entry requirements facing solar assets. The qualification process took approximately 14 months in total.
“We had to comply with strict regulatory conditions which are based on stable power plants such as gas and coal,” Ahsan explained to pv magazine. “Due to the intermittent nature of solar plants, it was hard to meet these requirements. We also had regulatory challenges where we had to discuss participation conditions with [Polish transmission system operator] PSE and adjust the timelines for participation due to weather related delays.”
Internal modelling by Goldbeck Solar indicates that solar assets can achieve up to 10% short-term revenue upsides through participation in the balancing market, Ahsan added, with long-term gains around 4%, in comparison to standard energy market participation.
Participation in the balancing market can also help to reduce curtailment, improve dispatch predictability and strengthen resilience against market volatility. “These services allow renewable assets to move beyond being passive price takers,” Ahsan said. “They protect downside risk, stabilise cash flows and enable solar plants to actively support system stability.”
Poland added 3.6 GW of solar last year, taking cumulative capacity to 24.8 GW.
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