Lawyers from Dentons’ Energy and Natural Resources Practice are advising Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE), Poland's state owned transmission system operator, on implementing an opinion issued by the Agency for Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).

On September 23, 2015, ACER issued an opinion on compliance with EU regulations on allocation of cross-border transmission capacity and management of restrictions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In this opinion, the Agency reported breaches of these regulations in electricity exchanges between Germany and Austria. The irregularities translate into unscheduled loop flows and have an adverse impact on other transmission systems in the region.

To implement the solutions recommended in the opinion, local systems that allocate transmission capacity and manage restrictions must be redesigned, and new rules must be devised for transmission system operators that manage grid restrictions and thus counteract the consequences of loop flows in the CEE region.

Arkadiusz Krasnodebski, Poland Managing Partner and leader of the Energy and Natural Resources practice teams in Poland and Europe leads the team advising PSE. Dentons’ legal team also includes Michal Motylewski, Agnieszka Kulinska, Jan Dubinski and Magdalena Brodawka.

“We are pleased to be advising Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne - Poland’s sole transmission system operator - on this critical project. To advise the client on the implementation of ACER’s recommendation, we have tapped into Dentons’ deep knowledge of the electricity sector in Poland and the EU.” said Arkadiusz Krasnodebski. “ACER’s opinion is unique, entirely without precedent, and at the same time of crucial significance for the safety of Poland’s energy system. In the summer of 2015, Poland was heavily hit by unscheduled cross-border flows through its transmission grid. ACER’s recommendations aim to prevent situations of this kind from recurring in the future,” he added.