The fee in question is the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is designed to ensure that imported goods with high greenhouse gas emissions face a carbon cost similar to products made inside the bloc.
It covers, among other items, imported electricity and ties the cost to the EU Emissions Trading System, the bloc’s cap-and-trade market where companies buy allowances for the carbon dioxide they emit.
Speaking in Brussels on Monday, Wrochna argued that the charge should not apply to what he called “operator exports,” which occur when the power system has surplus generation that cannot be sold on the market and transmission operators route it across the border to keep the grid stable.
“The energy network works in a very dynamic way,” Wrochna said, adding that Poland sometimes receives such power from Ukraine and at other times sends electricity in the other direction as part of routine system operations.
Wrochna said that when these noncommercial transfers take place from Ukraine to Poland, Kyiv is currently required to pay an additional CBAM-related charge.
Poland wants an exemption on the grounds that these flows are a technical tool for system security rather than a classic electricity export, state news agency PAP reported.
"This inter-operator export of electricity in fact safeguards the security of the Ukrainian system," Wrochna said, adding that Poland expects the European Commission to propose a solution and that Warsaw wants the change introduced as soon as possible.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP, IAR