Full Webinar Q&A:Entering Poland’s BESS Market: Who Do You Need on the Ground?

27 October 2026 | Energy Planet WebinarGuest: Mariusz Balicki, CEO of CORVION P.S.A.Moderator: Maciej Rudzik, Operations and BD - Polish market of ENERGY PLANET <h2>Webinar Q&A</h2><h2>Q1. How did your experience in power distribution and renewable energy lead you into the BESS market?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: I started with distribution networks, transformer substations and solutions dedicated to power distribution. When the renewable energy market in Poland began to grow very quickly, I moved into PV and wind projects. I saw the imbalance between energy production and consumption, as well as the growing challenges facing producers, consumers and distribution system operators. For many years, I worked on distribution issues—how to deliver the correct amount of energy at the right time and meet all the technical requirements—and I prepared reports for Polish DSOs on how these problems could be addressed. As renewable generation increased, the gap between production and consumption became larger and required more solutions. BESS fits these needs very well, but it has to be adapted to the technical requirements and the customer’s operating conditions. I believe we are now at the right point to use storage more effectively, especially in energy-intensive industry. <h2>Q2. Can you describe an early market development that first demonstrated the value of BESS?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: The key moment came when energy prices in Poland increased very quickly and time-dependent market prices became more important. We realised that by shifting energy over time through storage, we could improve the economics on both sides and create a win-win solution for producers and consumers. Storage could improve the productivity of PV farms, reduce energy costs for customers and help limit instability in the grid. As renewable capacity grew, curtailment and shutdowns of PV farms also became more frequent. The past few years have therefore shown how important BESS is becoming to Poland’s energy sector. Poland already has a large amount of PV capacity, and it is still growing, so storage will be required on a much wider scale. <h2>Q3. Looking back over your career in power and BESS, which changes stand out the most?</h2>Mariusz Balicki:The most important change has been the rapid growth of photovoltaic generation in both the industrial and residential sectors. This growth created a large amount of unbalanced energy, so finding a way to balance and use it became a central issue. Before high-efficiency, high-capacity BESS solutions were available, some industrial users tried to store surplus energy as heat, but the volumes were limited and the approach was not sufficiently effective. The first industrial BESS projects were a turning point because they showed that storage could reduce energy costs, stabilise consumption and improve continuity of supply. That demonstrated to industry that BESS could support the energy system in several practical ways, not only by storing electricity. <h2>Q4. When a company invests in power infrastructure today, what is it really trying to solve, and how does that differ from 10 or 15 years ago?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: Energy has always been one of the main components of production cost, but Poland is now moving from a raw-material-based economy towards more highly processed and higher-value products. That means industry consumes a great deal of electricity. Even when companies introduce energy-efficiency measures, total consumption continues to grow, and we expect Poland’s electricity demand could increase by around 30–40% over the next decade. The grid will require major investment, but grid investment alone will not solve the mismatch between production and consumption. Industrial processes can be adjusted to some extent, but demand cannot remain perfectly even throughout the day. Correctly designed BESS solutions can help manage these variations and reduce not only the commodity cost of electricity but also distribution charges. Based on our experience, the total energy cost for an industrial customer can be reduced by around 10–15% when the storage solution is properly designed. <h2>Q5. Who is now involved when a company decides whether to invest in BESS: engineering, finance or the board?</h2>Mariusz Balicki:This has changed over time. At the beginning, discussions were mainly with technical and energy teams. However, BESS was still new, and many in-house teams did not yet have enough knowledge or experience to evaluate it, so the decision-making process was not always effective. Today, we speak mainly with finance departments first. We already understand the technical solution, how to audit the facility and which costs can be reduced, but the company’s final decision is usually based on the cost of implementation, the operating cost and the expected reduction in energy expenditure. Once the financial case has been accepted, the technical team becomes involved in preparing the implementation. Our team comes from industry, so we know how to audit a site and introduce the system without creating unnecessary disruption. <h2>Q6. What unmet market need led you to establish CORVION?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: I am a technical person, and for me energy storage was initially a technical challenge that I wanted to improve. From a business perspective, however, the market also required a strong financial proposition. That is why I founded CORVION with my business partner, Alicja Lewandowska, who is responsible for the financial side of the business and brings experience from finance and real estate. We prepare technical solutions that also meet a customer’s financial requirements. Some customers want to buy a well-designed system, while others cannot commit the capital or prefer to keep cash focused on their core business. For those companies, we offer BESS as a service: we finance and develop the project, install the equipment and share the resulting cost savings with the customer. The customer does not increase CAPEX and benefits through lower OPEX. We can use a similar structure for PV owners, where the value created by higher utilisation of the generated energy is shared. Our aim is to make BESS easier to adopt, in a way that is closer to the leasing or rental model used in the automotive market. <h2>Q7. When a customer says it wants energy storage, what do you need to see first to judge whether the project is worth pursuing?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: The first point is the financial side, because in my experience around 70% of projects stop for financial reasons. We need to understand whether the customer wants to purchase the system, use a financing structure or take BESS as a service. We then analyse electricity invoices, the consumption profile, operating requirements and the customer’s expectations. A customer may initially request a system that is too small, too large or unable to deliver the expected savings. We therefore normally prepare several alternatives—often two to four—to show how the technical configuration changes the investment and the result. BESS as a service can sometimes be the most effective option because the system can be optimised around the site’s real needs rather than being constrained by the customer’s available CAPEX. <h2>Q8. Which customer segments in Poland are moving fastest on BESS?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: The fastest-moving segment is industry, especially energy-intensive industry, because electricity is a major operating cost and companies expect those costs to continue rising. The second important segment is owners of photovoltaic farms. Curtailment and shutdowns reduce their revenues, so they are looking for ways to store generation and sell it at a more suitable time. Polish PV farms also have specific technical architectures, which means the storage solution must be adapted to the existing plant rather than treated as a standard add-on. Suitable products are now becoming available, and this part of the market is growing quickly. <h2>Q9. Does being a Poland-based company, with local design, production and delivery capabilities, matter to customers?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: Yes. Local service and local responsibility build confidence, especially when customers are making a long-term infrastructure investment. Local-content requirements are also becoming more important in some sectors, particularly for government-related and defence projects. We can prepare solutions that meet the required local-content ratios while still using the most suitable international technology. For many customers, the key issue is not simply where each component was manufactured, but whether the complete solution can be designed, accepted, serviced and supported locally over its operating life. <h2>Q10. What was the most difficult interface between design and operation, and how did your team solve it in a real project?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: One of the most complicated cases was connecting a medium-voltage BESS to an industrial facility with very old infrastructure. The customer was a wood-processing company whose plant was more than 30 years old. We designed a solution to reduce energy costs through energy trading and by moving more grid imports to lower-priced night-time hours. The site also had several high-power motors that operated at specific times and were connected directly, without soft starters or variable-frequency drives, so they consumed a great deal of power during start-up. We developed the technical connection for the BESS, added export-limitation protection to prevent unwanted power flow to the grid, and introduced an EMS with schedules and self-learning functions. We also added technical measures to reduce the motors’ start-up demand and used stored energy to manage the remaining peaks. In the end, the customer’s energy cost was reduced by more than 30%. It was one of our best solutions because it combined BESS with process management rather than treating storage as a standalone device. <h2>Q11. Before purchasing batteries, PCS, transformers, switchgear and grid-connection equipment, which responsibilities must be clearly assigned?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: Everything starts with the correct overall design, and every part of that design must have a clearly assigned responsibility. We often see customers buy the DC containers from one company, the PCS from another, the transformer substation and switchgear elsewhere, and only afterwards look for a company to connect and commission everything. This can create major problems because the components may not be fully compatible and the parameters required for system design are not always understood in the same way by every supplier. One of the most common misunderstandings concerns the capacity of the DC container: customers often treat the catalogue value as the net energy that will be available at the point of use. A complete design must account for usable capacity, operating limits, DC-to-AC and AC-to-DC conversion, auxiliary consumption and all other losses. To achieve the expected output, some elements may also need to be oversized. We therefore begin with the customer’s actual requirements and design the complete system around them, even when the result differs significantly from the customer’s initial concept. <h2>Q12. Which BESS challenges and opportunities are specific to Poland, and which are common across Europe?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: One important Polish opportunity is retrofitting storage to existing PV farms that are affected by curtailment. A large share of Poland’s industrial-scale PV installations use an 800 V AC architecture, so a storage system designed around that voltage can connect more directly and avoid additional transformers, losses and equipment. In some cases, the right configuration can also keep the project below thresholds that would trigger more complex permitting. We have worked with Chinese suppliers to prepare solutions for this market. Another important area is continuity of supply for industry and agriculture. Some facilities are highly sensitive to even short outages, so the transition between grid-connected and off-grid operation becomes a critical design parameter. These needs also exist elsewhere in Europe, but the existing Polish plant base, grid conditions and permitting structure determine which technical configuration will be commercially practical. <h2>Q13. Which developments will matter most in Poland and Europe over the next three to five years?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: I see three main directions. The first is renewable generation, particularly PV and wind, where storage can reduce curtailment and make future revenue more predictable. Some renewable investments have slowed because owners and banks cannot be certain how much generation will be curtailed or what revenue will remain, and BESS can help address that uncertainty. The second direction is industry, where storage can reduce both energy and distribution costs. In many industrial bills, the commodity and distribution components are both significant, so the value is not limited to buying electricity at a lower price. The third direction is agriculture, which is growing and requires both affordable and reliable power. These customers are often smaller than major industrial groups, so they need solutions that are adapted to their scale and operating profile rather than standard utility-scale products. <h2>Q14. What advice would you give manufacturers, integrators or investors seeking to enter or expand in Poland?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: The first step is to analyse the market and understand which product can actually be sold. Poland has a large standalone BESS segment, but that is only part of the market. Companies targeting commercial and industrial users or PV farms must adapt their products to those customers’ expectations. I have seen companies spend a great deal of money on certification and documentation, only to discover that the product still does not fit the market. Sometimes a small technical difference creates a major commercial advantage—for example, a configuration that remains below a formal permitting threshold while still meeting the customer’s needs. The correct order is market analysis, preparation of the right solution and then the certifications required for acceptance by Polish DSOs. Certification cannot compensate for a product that was not designed for the market in the first place. <h2>Q15. Which customers and partners would CORVION most like to work with over the next year?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: Our main focus is the industrial market and PV farms because this is where we can create the clearest value through lower costs or higher revenues. We expect these segments to show some of the strongest growth over the next three to five years. We are also involved in large standalone projects and tenders, but industrial and PV applications provide a more continuous market and a closer link between the technical solution and the customer’s operating results. Our existing project pipeline gives us visibility into that demand, and we are interested in working with technology providers, investors and project partners that can support reliable delivery in these segments. <h2>Audience Q&A</h2><h2>Q16. What is the biggest hurdle to financing a battery storage project in Poland, and what can developers do early to improve their chances?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: The first requirement is always a correct business model. When a customer needs external financing, the bank or investor will first ask how the project makes money and how the risks are controlled. This created many questions and misunderstandings in our early projects, so we developed an offer that includes business and financial modelling as well as the technical solution. Because we know the banks and understand investors' expectations, we can develop solutions that meet those expectations. This is not always easy, as banks and investors often have completely different perspectives from those of industrial customers. By involving those perspectives at the beginning, we can show which expectations, construction choices or design parameters must change before the project reaches financing. The model needs to be tested from several sides, including cost reduction, cash flow, CAPEX and, in some cases, taxation. A technically sound system is not automatically a financeable project; the commercial structure has to be designed with equal care. <h2>Q17. How do permitting timelines and development costs look for standalone or utility-scale BESS projects in Poland?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: Poland is one of Europe’s leading markets for standalone BESS, and recent legal changes have simplified parts of the development process. However, the first step should be an assessment of the grid and the realistic connection options before a developer commits to a site or a complete project concept. A good parcel of land does not necessarily have the expected connection capacity. In some cases, alternative arrangements, including private or virtual distribution structures, can create options outside the standard DSO route, but they must be assessed project by project. An initial assessment of connection possibilities can take around one to two months. Once the available power and connection route are understood, the developer can build the business model around system services and energy trading, and then select the PCS, batteries and connection equipment. Oversizing capacity without a corresponding revenue stream only increases CAPEX. I would not give one universal end-to-end permitting timetable or cost because it depends heavily on the site, connection level and project structure; the most important point is to complete the steps in the correct order. <h2>Q18. If grid capacity is physically constrained, how can a local partner help overcome repeated DSO connection rejections?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: A local partner cannot create physical grid capacity, but it can understand where capacity exists, which substations may become available and which connection route is realistic. Because we also provide solutions for DSOs, we understand the network and maintain working relationships with the operators. Sometimes connecting to a more distant GPZ, or high-voltage substation, is more effective than waiting for the nearest one to be rebuilt or expanded. The project therefore has to be considered against the wider grid, not only the closest local node. Many customers also try to connect at the lowest possible voltage. We had a customer who spent two or three years applying unsuccessfully for a 110 kV connection. After we reviewed the network, the BESS was accepted at 400 kV on the first application. The example shows why understanding the grid, the available connection points and the appropriate voltage level can be more important than repeatedly applying for the most obvious route. <h2>Q19. For Chinese BESS hardware, how can suppliers meet tightening EU cybersecurity and Polish grid-compliance requirements before equipment is accepted?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: The hardware and its certification are important, but the more difficult issue is often software and system integration. That includes embedded code, the EMS or management platform, communications and the way the complete solution interacts with the grid and the customer’s infrastructure. A supplier should therefore address compliance at the design stage rather than after the equipment has already been manufactured or shipped. We can help define the required architecture, documentation and interfaces, support certification and adapt existing products to local requirements. The objective is to make the complete solution—not only the battery container—acceptable under European cybersecurity expectations, NC RfG requirements and the relevant Polish DSO procedures. <h2>Q20. Who absorbs the financial impact of a two-year permitting delay: the foreign manufacturer, the local Polish partner or the investor?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: The risk should be managed from the beginning through the project’s financing structure, cash-flow model and development schedule. We work with financial partners and divide expenditure into milestones so that the project does not commit major capital before the necessary permits and connection conditions are sufficiently clear. This does not remove all risk, but it can reduce the exposure substantially and prevent the manufacturer, local partner or investor from financing equipment too early. The allocation of cost must be agreed contractually for each project, but the best protection is to structure the project so that large financial commitments follow verified development milestones rather than assumptions. <h2>Q21. Which single compliance or market-access requirement could block profitable sales in Poland if it is not ready within the next six months?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: The critical issue is acceptance under the Polish grid and DSO process, including the documentation and certification route associated with PTPiREE, the Polish Society for Transmission and Distribution of Electricity. Without the required evidence, a supplier cannot demonstrate that the product will be accepted by the DSO. It may remain a marketing offer rather than a deployable product. The supplier therefore needs a market-fit technical design, complete documentation and a clear certification path from general European conformity requirements through to Polish grid acceptance. This work should start before the sales campaign, not after the first project has already been promised. <h2>Q22. What preliminary work should a Chinese BESS equipment manufacturer undertake before entering Poland?</h2>Mariusz Balicki: Start with an analysis of the Polish market and grid, and then select the segment in which the product can genuinely compete. It is important to understand the customer, the connection architecture and the local technical expectations before adapting the product and beginning certification. Entering a segment that is already saturated may require heavy price competition and leave little margin even if the product is technically good. In our experience, companies that first adapted the technical solution and then completed the correct certification process were able to prepare and begin selling products in less than a year. The sequence matters: market understanding first, product adaptation second, and certification and commercial launch after that. Editor’s note: This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability. Questions have been consolidated, and each answer is presented as a single paragraph. Grammar, syntax and obvious transcription errors have been corrected without changing the speaker’s intended meaning. The recording begins during the guest’s opening answer, so the first question has been reconstructed from context.The discussion examines what it takes to bring battery energy storage projects to market in Poland—from customer economics and industrial applications to grid connections, financing, certification and local delivery capability.

Full Webinar Q&A:Entering Poland’s BESS Market: Who Do You Need on the Ground?

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