What is the UC84 Act?
The UC84 Act, or the “Grid Act”, is a comprehensive amendment to the Energy Law in Poland. It was drafted in response to dozens of “Zombie Projects” (projects which were issued grid connection conditions, but had never entered into a construction phase and likely never will) that had oversaturated Poland’s grid connection capacity.
In total, the industry estimates that tens of gigawatts of reserved grid connection capacity has been locked up by these Zombie Projects.
The consequences of this were critical: investors wanting to build renewable and BESS projects were prevented from doing so because the grid connection capacity had already been taken three years ago by a project which had not progressed since; and since new projects were not able to obtain grid connection dates, renewable energy development in Poland was stalling.
As a result, the industry demanded change: clarify the rules, eliminate the zombie projects, and free up capacity for projects that will actually be built.
UC84 was created to address this demand.
What has changed?
Grid Connection Conditions
Under the previous framework, grid connection conditions (GCC) were valid for two years. Under UC84, the validity period is reduced to one year for standard renewable and energy storage projects. Exceptions apply for offshore wind and nuclear projects (10 years) and railway projects (two years).
This shortened timeframe requires developers to have land rights, zoning, and cable routing thoroughly prepared before applying for conditions. This is an important change, because developing a project from the greenfield to shovel-ready can take months - not weeks. Developers are required to go through zoning processes, verify cable routes, negotiate with landowners, and so on. Only once all of these preliminary steps are completed can a developer sign the connection agreement. For a project that requires fixing documentation issues or has a complicated cable route, one year may simply not be enough
So what does this mean in practice?
For developers, a realistic roadmap to signing the grid connection agreement (GCA), taking into account the realities of potential delays in correspondence or mistakes in filing, needs to be prepared in advance. Preparation will be key under UC84.
For investors, one of the first questions asked should be when the grid connection conditions were issued, and what work remains to be done before the GCA can be signed.
Finally, in order to improve visibility in the market, UC84 will require operators serving over 100,000 customers to implement online platforms within 24 months (which means results won’t be seen until 2028). These platforms will provide transparency on available capacity and the status of applications in the queue. This is a massive improvement, as this information is mostly unavailable today.
Financial requirements
UC84 introduces three distinct financial instruments that raise the upfront capital required for project development:
- Application Fee: A non-refundable fee of 1 PLN per kW, capped at 100,000 PLN, required simply to submit an application.
This is a new fee that did not previously exist. So, for example, for a 50MW project, a 50,000PLN non-refundable application fee must be paid before the application will even be considered.
- Advance Payment: Doubled from 30 PLN to 60 PLN per kW, capped at 6 million PLN.
For that same 50MW project, the advanced payment will now cost 3 million PLN instead of 1.5 million PLN.
- Security Deposit: A new requirement of 30 PLN per kW for installations under 100 MW, and 60 PLN per kW for those over 100 MW, capped at 12 million PLN.
The security can take the form of a deposit in an interest bearing account, an insurance guarantee, a bank guarantee or a surety from a parent company with appropriate credit rating. For that same 50MW project, the security requirement would be 1.5 Million PLN.
In total, where developers pre-UC84 would have paid 1.5 million PLN for a 50MW project, they are now paying upwards of 4.5 million; and that is before they have obtained financing or a building permit.
In practice, these financial requirements raise the bar for what upfront capital is required to develop a project in Poland.
For large corporations, this will be an additional but manageable cost. For smaller developers, however, having millions of PLN allocated per project may become a real hindrance on their ability to develop multiple projects at once. This increase in barrier to entry may drive market consolidation, favoring well-capitalized corporate groups over smaller independent developers.
Milestones
To ensure capacity is utilized, all grid connection agreements will now contain strict development milestones: stages that a developer must reach within set timeframes. The core requirement is obtaining a final building permit for at least 80% of the requested capacity within 24 months of signing the agreement. Missing this milestone without a valid Force Majeure justification results in the expiration of the grid connection agreement by law.
Since most building permits take approximately 3-6 months to obtain, assuming all prior steps have been completed, this is not necessarily an unreasonable timeline. However, the Sejm (Polish Senate) insisted that an exemption for Force Majeure or public administration delays be included in UC84. This means that if a developer can demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to obtain their building permit, but were not able to do so within 24 months due to bureaucratic delays or unforeseeable events, their grid connection agreement will not automatically lapse. Instead, these developers will be able to extend their security for an additional security deposit of up to 60 PLN per kW.
Finally, the law also introduced two types of grid connection agreements: flexible agreements and configurable agreements.
Flexible agreements allow early operation with temporary grid limitations (up to three years) while upgrades are completed.
Configurable agreements allow capacity limitations (curtailments) based on grid congestion. Unlike the flexible agreements, these curtailments are indefinite and do not end after three years. This presents a major challenge for securing bank financing due to unpredictable revenue streams, because banks will be hesitant to finance an investment that it cannot regularly utilize. As such, developers offered configurable agreements should scrutinize the curtailment conditions closely.
Cable pooling: A breakthrough for energy storage
For the BESS sector, perhaps the most favorable change in the entire UC84 is the formal extension of cable pooling to energy storage facilities. This means that multiple installations of different technologies (i.e., PV, Wind, and BESS) can now share a single grid connection point. This extension enables hybrid projects, allowing developers to add BESS to existing solar or wind farms under their current connection agreements. Prior to UC84, developers had to have a separate condition for their BESS developments.
By absorbing excess energy during peak production, storage can minimize curtailment and optimize grid infrastructure without the cost and delay of securing new grid connection conditions. However, it is important to note that systems must include a power guardian with millisecond-level dynamic regulation to guarantee connection capacity is never exceeded.
Key things to understand when navigating UC84
For investors operating in the Polish market, several practical points require immediate attention.
First, the retroactivity of UC84 means existing business cases must be revised. Projects with signed connection agreements must post 50% of the new security rate, while those with issued conditions only which have not signed an agreement must post 25%. Failure to meet the short transitional deadlines can result in the loss of connection rights.
While developers may have made budgeting or investment decisions six months ago based on certain assumptions, the retroactivity of UC84 and these new security requirements may change these assumptions. As such, financial models must be updated to account for doubled advance payments, new security deposits, and potential curtailment under configurable agreements. Project economics calculated six months ago will need adjustments.
Finally, the window for adding storage to operating assets is opening. With the expansion of cable pooling, auditing existing portfolios for retrofit opportunities should be seriously considered by developers.
How arra helps investors and developers navigate these changes
At arra, we believe accurate, up-to-date data will help speed up acquisition times and decrease the chance of deals falling through. We follow key market trends and update our platform regularly to ensure that platform users have access to the information needed to make informed investment decisions.
On the arra platform, investors can find projects that share the information needed to make an informed offer.