The demand for electricity is related to the economic growth in the country. According to preliminary estimates of the Central Statistical Office the GDP in 2020 dropped by approx.. 2.8% yoy (against the growth of 4.5% yoy, in 2019).
The domestic consumption of electricity, according to the data published by PSE, dropped in Poland in 2020 to the level of 165.5 TWh against 169.4 TWh in 2019, which is down by 2.3% yoy (in 2019 the decrease amounted to 0.9% yoy).
The main reason for the drop in domestic energy consumption in 2020 was the pandemic of COVID-19 coronavirus and various restrictions connected with it introduced by the government to low down the pace of coronavirus surge. The restrictions of movement and direct contacts of persons translated into a decrease in the exchange of goods within the country and with other countries. As a consequence, all these factors led to a lower activeness of the entire economy, also including the industrial sector and lower consumption of electricity.
The weighted average BASE price on the Day-Ahead Market in 2020 reached the level of 210.11 PLN/MWh, which is down by 19.51 PLN/MWh against 2019 (-8.50% yoy). (source: TGE).
On the derivatives market in turn in 2020 the weighted average price of the annual contract with BASE-type delivery (BASE_Y-21) in the entire 2020 amounted to 231.87 PLN/MWh, which is down by 34.53 PLN/MWh against the price of BASE_Y-20 contract quotations in 2019 (-12.96% yoy). (source: TGE).
The volume of electricity trading on the POLPX in 2020 amounted to 243.2 TWh, which is up by 6.2% against 2019, and is the best result in the history of trading this commodity on the POLPX.
Record results were recorded for the volume on the entire spot market 34.8 TWh (up by 2.8% yoy), and the derivatives market 208.3 TWh (up by 6.8% yoy). The turnover on the Intra Day Market finally amounted to 2.1 TWh and exceed over 12 times the volume of 2019. The turnover on the Day-Ahead Market amounted to 32.7 TWh and recorded a drop by 3.0% yoy (source: TGE).
In accordance with the valid principle of third parties access (TPA) to the network, all final customers are free to choose the electricity and natural gas seller. Final customers using the network of a local provider can individually select the seller of electricity org as which will offer them the most favourable conditions of sale. The president of the Energy Regulatory Office conducts cyclical evaluation of the actual execution of the right to choose the seller.
In the past year one could observe a considerable drop in the number of customers who changed the seller in the tariff groups A, B and C, and also in the tariff group G (households). The data provided by distribution system operators demonstrates that in the tariff groups A, B and C, in the period January-November 2020, the seller was changed by 6.1 thousand of customers against 8.9 thousand of customers in the entire 2019. In the tariff group G in the period January-November 2020 the seller was changed by 31.2 thousand of customers against 52.6 thousand of customers in the entire 2019.
At the end of 2020, the number of TPA customers from the tariff groups A, B and C amounted in total to 216 thousand, and in the tariff group G (households) in total 688 thousand, since the date the possibility to change the seller was made available (incremental data) (source: URE).
