In the period from January to December 2021, a total of 31.4 million tonnes of hard coal and 52.2 million tonnes of lignite were received by commercial and industrial power plants from Polish mines. This means that 99.7% of hard coal and lignite for the power industry comes from Polish mines.

According to the information prepared under the Statistical Research Program of Official Statistics, only 2% of imported coal is intended for commercial and industrial power engineering. It is about 0.25 million tons per year.

Since 2018, the import of hard coal that enters Poland has been systematically decreasing. This import is mainly carried out by private companies that are not subject to MAP.

The ministry also informed that last year a total of 12.55 million tons of hard coal was imported to Poland, mainly for private purposes. Such import has been a fact for many years.

Coal imports did not increase despite the increased demand for electricity resulting from energy exports to neighbouring countries. Due to the fact that the energy sector was based on gas, they experienced a sharp increase in energy prices due to Russian manipulations on the gas market.

Adrian Andrzejewski