Other participants in the discussion included Piotr Górnik, CEO of Fortum Power and Heat Polska; Jacek Szymczak, CEO of the Polish Chamber of Commerce Polish District Heating; Monika Gawlik, Director of the Department of Electricity and Heat Markets at the Energy Regulatory Office; Aneta Więcka, Project Manager at the Department for the Development of Innovative Programme Management Methods at the National Centre for Research and Development; Katarzyna Szymczak-Pomianowska, Director of the Department of Sustainable Development at the Wrocław City Hall; and Piotr Maryński, Member of the Supervisory Board of the Voivodeship Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Wrocław.

“There is no competition for gas in terms of speed and mass use in the transformation of the heating sector. A lack of required technology is what blocks other sources of heat generation. PSG's strategic perspective for 2030 includes connecting hundreds of new customers from the commercial power sector. This will cause a jump in gas consumption from about 3 billion m3 currently to about 6 billion m3”, said Ireneusz Krupa.

Such a large increase in gas consumption requires the allocation of significant resources to gas infrastructure – both in transmission and distribution networks. The PSG board member expressed doubt that there would be a collapse of the gas market in 2040.

“Gas will be used long after this year as the dominant fuel. In the meantime, new technologies such as biomethane will be implemented, but until there is an investment breakthrough in the construction of biogas plants, “green” gas will not be available in large quantities that can replace natural gas”, he noted.

Ireneusz Krupa also referred to hydrogen technologies. The key problem is expected to be storage and distribution of hydrogen. Admixing natural gas with it in traditional networks is not an optimal solution. Much better would be the introduction of dedicated hydrogen networks. Ireneusz Krupa noted that PSG is already considering participating in projects of this type, but they will be local due to the scale of production.