Poland Moves to Clear Grid Backlogs as Data Center and Storage Demand Surges

On January 7, 2026, Poland’s cabinet approved a draft overhaul of the national Energy Law to accelerate grid connections and reduce “ghost capacity” projects that reserve grid access without ever being built, blocking other developers. The draft now heads to parliament and, ultimately, for presidential signature before becoming law.

Poland’s transmission system, operated by Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE), faces severe grid-connection backlogs, with wait times around three years. Speculative requests are a growing problem: developers have lodged applications totaling roughly 130 GW of data-center connections, far exceeding realistic demand projections of about 1.2 GW by 2034.

These “ghost” applications make grid planning harder and delay real projects. The current reforms aim to unblock capacity by tightening the financial commitment required and giving serious developers a faster route to meaningful interconnection agreements.

Why Poland is acting now

Poland is trying to expand and modernize its power system while adding a lot more variable generation and flexibility.

Reuters reported that renewables are expected to exceed 60% of electricity production by 2035 (up from 30% today), and that PSE must be ready to integrate 80+ GW of new renewables plus 15 GW of energy storage by 2034.

Meanwhile, PSE’s published grid development plan emphasizes new investments to enable the connection of new customers, generation units, and energy storage facilities, including work on an HVDC north–south concept to move wind power from northern Poland to demand centers.

Poland’s grid operator PSE plans to invest over $15.4 billion by 2034 to expand the network, including thousands of kilometers of high-voltage lines and modern substations that can integrate up to 45 GW of solar and 18 GW of offshore wind capacity.

Large national and EU-backed projects are modernizing distribution systems and connecting hundreds of thousands of new users and renewable installations.

Large industrial players are also moving forward. For example, Grenergy recently secured capacity contracts for 2.1 GWh of standalone battery storage projects in Poland’s latest auction.

What’s changing in the grid connection process

Poland’s reform package is designed to separate serious projects from speculative queue positions and to create new ways to connect faster when the grid is constrained.

1) A faster path from “terms” to a firm connection agreement

The government-backed draft aims to halve the time needed to convert an initial set of connection terms into a firm grid connection agreement, while raising fees to discourage speculative requests.

2) More transparency from grid operators

Under the proposal, grid operators would be required to publish key queue and capacity information, including available capacity, submitted applications, application status, and connection rejections. This matters because opaque queues are hard to plan around especially for capital-heavy builds like data centers, battery storage, and large renewables.

3) “Cable pooling” expands to energy storage and hybrid facilities

Today, cable pooling is commonly associated with renewable-only sharing models. The draft expands cable pooling to include energy storage and mixed-source facilities, enabling more co-located renewables + BESS projects to share grid infrastructure.

4) New connection models that trade certainty for speed

A key feature is the introduction of two new agreement types that allow connection sooner, but with operational limits:

• • • Flexible connection agreements: allow projects to connect where they would otherwise require grid expansion, but impose production/consumption limits until upgrades are completed, generally no longer than 3 years after the installation is completed and receives a final occupancy permit.
    • Configurable connection agreements: also impose limits, but constraints may vary over time or be triggered by grid parameters and can apply indefinitely if full, unconstrained connection isn’t feasible.

For data centers, this is a meaningful shift: it creates a pathway where projects may connect sooner but must design around contracted capacity and potential curtailment-style constraints.

5) Higher financial barriers to deter “ghost capacity”

Legal and industry summaries of the draft highlight multiple cost and milestone mechanisms intended to stop speculative queueing, including:

• • • Upfront deposit rising from PLN 30 to PLN 60 per kW, with the cap rising to PLN 6 million.
    • A new non-refundable application processing fee of PLN 1 per kW, capped at PLN 100,000.
    • A performance security requirement described as PLN 30/kW (below 100 MW) and PLN 60/kW (above 100 MW), capped at PLN 12 million.
    • Shorter validity for connection conditions: from two years to one year (with specific exceptions).

6) “Power guard” to prevent exceeding contracted capacity

Polish media summaries also describe a “power guard” mechanism intended to prevent connected parties from exceeding their contracted capacity, with the ability for operators to suspend delivery if limits are violated.

Why it matters for electronics and power semiconductor demand

Grid expansion and storage deployments are electronics-heavy. If Poland’s reform succeeds in converting “paper capacity” into buildable projects, it can pull through demand for:

• • Power semiconductors (SiC MOSFETs/diodes, IGBT modules) used in battery PCS, renewable inverters, grid-support equipment, and industrial power conversion.
  • Protection and sensing (current/voltage sensing, relays, metering) used across substations and distribution automation.
  • Industrial control and communications hardware used for monitoring, automation, and performance compliance especially in environments where loads must stay inside contracted limits.

Faster connections + storage + grid upgrades translates into broader adoption of power electronics across multiple market segments, from renewables and storage to data center electrification.

IBS Electronics will continue tracking these grid reforms and what they mean for power electronics demand across Europe. If your projects are affected by grid interconnection timelines, IBS can support sourcing and comparing solutions across power semiconductors, protection, sensing, and industrial control for grid and storage builds.