Polish Minister sees the energy price cap expiring this year

According to Polish Climate Minister Paulina Hnnig-Kloska, the government should be able to lift the cap on energy prices in the final quarter of this year due the falling wholesale prices.

Since 2022, Poland has capped power bills to protect vulnerable consumers from the rising costs of energy. It also pays compensation to utilities to offset these costs. The cap has been extended multiple times and is now in place until September.

Poland's central banks has repeatedly stated that energy prices are a risk to policy, and that lifting the cap on price could lead to an increase in inflation.

Hennig Kloska, a Wirtualna Polska reporter, said: "Electricity rates are set by an independent regulator. But I expect the prices to be low enough that state intervention is not necessary."

She said that although the prices for households have been capped at 500 Zloty ($129.90), wholesale electricity prices are lower. She added that she will press state-controlled utilities in order to reflect this in their tariff proposals.

She added: "Companies need money to invest in order to continue to transform and to produce more energy using renewable energy sources. But they also must take into consideration the public interest." ($1 = 3.8491 zlotys) (Reporting by Marek Strzelecki Editing by Christina Fincher)

(source: Reuters)