Poland’s energy regulator Urząd Regulacji Energetyki (URE) has released a statement following instances of fraudulent inspections of home solar installations.
According to the warning, individuals claiming to be from the country's Transmission Grid Control Agency have been contacting households and businesses with solar installations, asking to inspect their solar systems and asking for data on inverters and meters. Media reports in Poland corroborate the claim, reporting cases of fraudsters posing as inspectors.
URE’s statement says there are no grounds for allowing employees claiming to be from the agency to inspect home photovoltaic installations.
It advises that inspections of solar installations do happen, as they are crucial for grid stability and safety of its users, but are only ever carried out by licensed staff from distribution system operators (DSOs), with inspections always conducted by a team of at least two people.
The regulator advises homeowners to ensure an inspector possesses ID and authorization issued by the relevant DSO for the given area and to contact the operator if there is any doubt.
It also recommends exercising caution if a third party is requesting to read consumption or inverter data and tells prosumers to ensure they understand to what purpose data is being obtained and how it will be processed and used.
URE’s statement also features an appeal to report any instances of someone impersonating authorized solar inspectors to the police.
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