FYI, headline tells it all.  Further delay in Polish power market opening.  
Though there is light at the end of the tunnel, it is now about 3 months 
further out than my last e-mail to you on this subject.  let me know if you 
need more.   thanks  mcs
---------------------- Forwarded by Mark Schroeder/LON/ECT on 12/12/2000 
11:25 ---------------------------


Philip Davies
12/12/2000 11:14
To: Poland
cc:  

Subject: Poland: Polish Grid Operator Sees 6-Month Delay To Balancing Mkt

Confirmation of our understanding.
---------------------- Forwarded by Philip Davies/LON/ECT on 12/12/2000 11:17 
---------------------------


djcustomclips@djinteractive.com on 12/12/2000 11:04:09
Please respond to nobody@mail1.djnr.com
To: 140569@mailman.enron.com
cc:  

Subject: Poland: Polish Grid Operator Sees 6-Month Delay To Balancing Mkt


Polish Grid Operator Sees 6-Month Delay To Balancing Mkt

12/12/2000
Dow Jones International News
(Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

  WARSAW -(Dow Jones)- An hourly balancing market in Poland's electricity
sector - the key to an open market - won't come into operation until
July 1, 2001, six months later than originally scheduled, grid operator
officials told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.

  "Tests are still going on in the introduction of (information
technology) software for all entities involved in the balancing market.
We expect a test period of six months as of Jan. 1 and for the system to
'go live' in July 2001," said Marek Zerka, deputy president of Polish
grid operator Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne.
  Industry insiders say an hourly balancing market is essential for the
effective functioning of a liberalized electricity market in Poland.

  "Without an hourly balancing market, trade in the whole sector won't
function properly," Wladyslaw Mielczarski of Energoprojekt-Consulting SA
told the EuroForum conference in Warsaw recently.

  The chief benefit of the hourly balancing market is that it would push
both generators and distributors to develop more sophisticated
purchasing and risk management strategies, which in turn would increase
trading volumes on the Polish Power Exchange, or Polpx, analysts said.

  The introduction of a fully functioning hourly balancing market would
end PSE's current practice of setting monthly prices for balancing
market electricity on the basis of estimated demand for the following
month.

  Analysts say this is a cumbersome and inaccurate procedure, in which
physical supply of electricity and the financial settlement of accounts
only roughly correlates.

  PSE and a group of companies, including Polpx and the power plants
Elektrownia Dolna Odra and Elektrownia Patnow-Adamow-Konin, started
testing computer systems for the balancing market Oct. 1, and tests are
ongoing, Zerka said. Officials at Elektrownia Dolna Odra said the power
plant was technically fully prepared for the Jan. 1 start.

  However, Zerka said there were some technical teething problems with
Polpx's software, and uncertainties related to the compatibility of
software used by different entities.

  Zerka said the hourly balancing market will be based on the
"pay-as-bid" system used in the U.K. This means that participants will
need a risk management and trading strategy in place, and can't continue
basing their sales or purchases on marginal costs, said analysts.

  Until the balancing market starts operating in July, PSE will continue
to draw up monthly coordination plans. Many analysts say the low volumes
the power exchange has had since its inception in July are largely
caused by problems of inaccuracies in the monthly settlement of physical
flows.

  Polpx recently said it needs at least 4% of total domestic turnover to
break even, and up to 7% before it can start thinking about introducing
forwards and derivatives markets in the Polish electricity sector.

  It has around 1% of total turnover today, and the delay in setting up
the balancing market means that bigger volumes won't come about until
the second half of 2001, insiders said.

  -By Joe Harper, Dow Jones Newswires; 48-22 622-2766;
joe.harper@dowjones.com



Folder Name: Poland
Relevance Score on Scale of 100: 90

______________________________________________________________________

To review or revise your folder, visit http://www.djinteractive.com or 
contact Dow Jones Customer Service by e-mail at custom.news@bis.dowjones.com 
or by phone at 800-369-7466. (Outside the U.S. and Canada, call 609-452-1511 
or contact your local sales representative.)
______________________________________________________________________

Copyright (c) 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved