The Sejm passed a bill that freezes the price of electricity for households in 2023 at this year’s levels to avoid a spike in electricity bills from January.
Poland relies heavily on coal in electricity production and faces shortages due to an embargo on Russian coal imposed when Russia invaded Ukraine and, therefore, is now paying high prices for the commodity. Additionally, Polish power plants have to bear an above-average cost of the EU’s emission allowances (ETS) which they need to purchase to compensate for their CO2 emissions.
Earlier this month, the ruling party put forward the idea to shield households from enormous increases in electricity prices that would otherwise be expected from January 1.
Read more ⤵️
GOV’T WILL CAP ELECTRICITY PRICES FOR ALL HOUSEHOLDS
“One of its points is lack of electricity price increases from January,” the Prime Minister said then. “I know inflation is high, but we want to stifle it. So, all households, with no exceptions, will have their electricity price guaranteed up to 2,000 kWh a year.”
The bill gained strong support in parliament on Thursday, with 414 MPs voting in favour of the measure, one against and 26 abstaining.
Under the legislation, the price freeze will be applicable up to 2 MWh of annual use in the case of all households, with upper limits of 2.6 MWh for households with a disabled member and 3 MWh for large families and farmers. Households will have to pay market prices above those limits.
Additionally, households that manage to cut their energy consumption by at least 10 per cent next year will get a 10 per cent discount on their total annual bill, Morawiecki said.