May 2026, Issue 5 (863)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Herbert Leopold Gabryś
Power industry in Poland 2026 – selected from the results and challenges

 

BULLETIN OF ENERGOPOMIAR

Adrianna Telega
Sustainable water management in the energy sector as an element of a country’s environmental security

Kazimierz Zamorowski
Requirements for the thermal waste treatment proces
– problems with the measurement methodology and result interpretation

 

Marek Pronobis
Actual carbon footprint when switching from coal to other fuels in power and heating plants

 

 

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SUMMARIES

 

Herbert Leopold Gabryś
Power industry in Poland 2026 – selected from the results and challenges
The article states, among other things, that the generation structure in Poland is changing. Demands for transmission, control, and real-time billing are growing. The National Power System is not ready for this. It cannot keep up with the dynamics of change, especially in generation. The climate doctrine is issuing a bill that is disconnected from reality. Populist assurances that energy from renewable sources will be cheaper turned out to be false, as they failed to take into account not only the burden of the “emission tax” but also the scale of system costs. Without generation from fossil fuels, the system cannot be stabilized. The CO2 emissions trading system is ripe for a decisive revision. From the ETS (ETS1) to the planned introduction of ETS2. The European economy has issued a clear judgment against the “emission tax” – it is unjustifiably expensive and ineffective in achieving its objectives. The facts and data contained in the article are based on the WEO 2025 Report of November 12, 2025, issued by the IEA in Paris.

 

Adrianna Telega
Sustainable water management in the energy sector as an element of a country’s environmental security
Sustainable water management in the energy sector can be viewed as one of the practical ways to strengthen a country’s environmental security, since it combines the protection of water resources and aquatic ecosystems with maintaining the stable operation of critical infrastructure. Water remains a crucial issue for many segments of the energy value chain (i.a., generation, cooling, and technological processes) and recent observations in Europe suggest that water stress (drought, low water levels, elevated water temperatures) can periodically constrain the availability of part of the generation capacity and increase pressure on receiving water bodies. From this perspective, water management in the energy sector can simultaneously affect environmental quality and the energy system resilience. The article aims to structure the interdependencies within the water–energy–environment nexus and to indicate how sustainable water management practices can support a country’s environmental security.

 

Kazimierz Zamorowski
Requirements for the thermal waste treatment proces – problems with the measurement methodology and result interpretation
The article presents legal requirements for thermal waste treatment plants. It points out problems with checking combustion conditions, namely, the required flue gas residence time of at least two seconds at a temperature not lower than 1100°C for hazardous waste and at least 850°C for other types of waste. The article discusses available measurement methodologies and problems related to their proper selection. Moreover, it presents difficulties in interpreting the requirements for the combustion process. The use of statistical analysis is proposed, i.e., considering Type A expanded measurement uncertainty to assess compliance of the results of flue gas temperature measurements with the legal requirements. The article highlights errors when taking measurements and in assessing compliance with the combustion condition. Besides, it presents the methodology for measuring the flue gas residence time of two seconds at the required temperature.

 

Marek Pronobis
Actual carbon footprint when switching from coal to other fuels in power and heating plants
The National Power System (NPS) is increasingly reliant on gas-fired units fueled by natural gas (NG), the majority of which is imported. Given the significant impact of CH4 emissions on the global climate, it remains questionable whether current policies shaping the NPS structure are justifiable from both economic and ecological perspectives. There is a possibility that imported NG generates a carbon footprint (CFP) exceeding that of domestic hard coal (HC) or even lignite (L). This paper evaluates the conditions under which such a scenario occurs and outlines optimal development paths for fuel-based power generation. This sector remains an essential component for maintaining grid frequency and voltage stability, serving as a safeguard against blackouts in a system with a high penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES), such as wind farms and photovoltaics.