III TIME Economic Forum

During the III TIME Economic Forum ( held on May 10-12 2011) an important debate on the future of ICT industry and distributed generation was held. All the participants agreed that Poland has a potential to become the leader on the market of services, products and systems associated with community power generation.

A dynamic and constructive discussion, with the participation of:

• Cezary Grabarczyk, Minister of Infrastructure
• Dariusz Bogdan, Deputy minister of Economy
• Marek Woszczyk, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office
• Anna Streżyńska, the President of the Office of the Electronic Communications
• Professor Tadeusz Więckowski, the President of the Wroclaw University of Technology, representing The Smart Power Grids Polska Consortium
• Sejm deputy Antoni Mężydło – Vice-Chairman of the Standing Subcommittee on Power Generation.
• Members of the Polish scientific community, university representatives, management of the ICT industry, and business organisations involved in renewable energy sources (RES)
• Renowned experts in the field of Smart Grids (including Professor Jan Popczyk and Krzysztof Żmijewski)

brought the following conclusions:

• Competitiveness and cost-effectiveness of OZE should be built in the next few years, but in order to make it happen, the access to end-users must be gained.
• Such access can be assured only when the institution of “prosumer “ obtains a legal definition.
• The necessity of developing community power generation is a natural consequence of the collapse of the economy of scale in the energy
generation industry, i.e. the fact that the development of energy sources of great size has ceased to bring the desired effects.
• Poland’s energy security should rely on micro- and pico- energy systems.
• The presented vision of the development of energy market for the ICT industry met with general acclaim.
• Abilities and achievements of the Polish science community in the field of distributed generation, and the country’s expanded and modern ICT industry can be perceived together as a strong social and economic basis for introducing new quality of cooperation between science and industry, especially since the goals and challenges for such a cooperation have been well defined.
• The science partner needs to elaborate the Smart Grid Strategic Programme, which will open the first stage of the development of community power generation

During the entire forum, the debate was effectively led and animated by Jarosław Tworóg, PhD, the Vice-President of the Polish Chamber of Commerce for Electronics and Telecommunications (KIGEiT), who has proven that KIGEiT has sufficient competences, resources and strategy for developing community power generation based on the ICT industry products. Being an expert and a person responsible for the integration of knowledge and competences of the companies affiliated with the Section of Smart Grid solutions operating within KIGEiT, Mr. Tworóg several times pointed out that the Polish ICT industry may be a partner for the Polish government in the development of the country’s energy security. In the strategy proposed by KIGEiT, the development of Smart Grids is seen as a potential source of huge economic benefits and a driving force of Poland’s economic development. Reliability of KIGEiT stems from 20 years of applying a consistent policy and strict cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, owing to which the ICT industry was successfully retrieved from a state of total collapse, becoming one of the strongest sectors on the Polish market (7.5% of total Polish exports, a positive balance of foreign trade in the electronics industry, etc.).

The discussions held during the Conference will translate into strengthening of cooperation between KIGEiT and the administration, Sejm and NGOs interested in the development of community power generation.

During an official gala, traditionally accompanying the TIME Economic Forum, the “Golden Bulldozer “ award was handed out. This year, the award went to Mr. Mariusz Swora, for his unique contribution and consistent efforts to create a competitive energy market and support development of distributed generation in Poland.