Poland’s energy transition is increasingly an infrastructure project. The country is not simply replacing coal plants with wind turbines, solar panels, gas facilities and nuclear reactors. It is also rebuilding the networks that connect generation to consumers, redirecting energy flows away from Russia, strengthening links with neighboring markets and preparing the Baltic coast to become a major center of electricity and gas supply.
For decades, Poland’s power system developed around large coal and lignite plants located mainly in the south and center of the country. Much of the transmission network was designed to move electricity from these plants toward Warsaw, northern Poland and other consumption centers. New generation is emerging in different places. Offshore wind will be concentrated in the Baltic Sea, the first large nuclear power plant is planned near the northern coast, and solar installations are spread across thousands of local distribution networks.
This change in geography explains why grid investment has become one of the country’s most important energy priorities.
Poland’s Power Grid Must Follow Generation North
Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne, or PSE, operates Poland’s high-voltage transmission system. Its development plan for 2025–2034 includes hundreds of projects intended to modernize existing assets and create new routes for electricity.
The program is expected to add more than 5,000 kilometers of 400-kilovolt transmission lines, build around 30 substations and modernize existing substations. Planned expenditure is approximately PLN 66 billion. This is not routine network maintenance. It represents a large restructuring of the Polish power system.
The most important change is the growing need to transport electricity from northern Poland to industrial regions in the south. Baltic offshore wind farms will connect along the coast, while the planned nuclear development in Pomerania would add another large source of northern generation. Southern Poland, however, remains home to major industrial loads and many of the coal-fired stations expected to close or reduce production over time.
PSE has therefore examined a high-voltage direct-current connection running between northern and southern Poland. An HVDC route could carry large volumes of electricity over long distances while reducing pressure on the alternating-current network. Conventional 400-kilovolt lines and substations will still be required, but a direct north-south corridor could become one of the defining assets of Poland’s future grid.
Grid Connections Have Become a Development Bottleneck
Poland’s rapid growth in solar and wind capacity has exposed weaknesses below the national transmission level. Distribution companies must manage increasing numbers of generators connected to networks originally designed mainly to deliver electricity in one direction.
In 2024, Polish network operators refused thousands of renewable-energy connection requests. The total requested capacity associated with those refusals reached tens of gigawatts. Some applications may represent overlapping or speculative projects rather than plants that would all have been built, but the figures still show that available grid capacity has become scarce in many regions.
This problem affects the speed of Poland’s transition. Renewable projects can be developed much faster than new transmission lines, substations and transformers. A solar farm may take a few years to plan and construct, while a major high-voltage corridor can require a decade of permitting, land acquisition, consultation and engineering.
Poland is responding through network expansion, energy storage and more flexible connection rules. Cable pooling allows different renewable plants to share one grid connection when their production patterns are complementary. Solar and wind projects, for example, may use the same connection without reaching maximum output at the same time. Wider use of storage, demand management and dynamic electricity pricing could also reduce pressure on constrained networks.
These measures improve the use of existing infrastructure, but they cannot replace major physical investment. Electrification of heating, transport and industry will increase demand even as the generation mix becomes more decentralized and weather-dependent.
The Baltic Coast Has Become Poland’s Energy Gateway
Northern Poland is gaining importance for more than electricity. The Baltic coast now anchors the country’s strategy for diversified natural gas imports.
The liquefied natural gas terminal at Świnoujście began as an alternative to pipeline gas from the east. Its expansion raised annual regasification capacity to 8.3 billion cubic meters at the start of 2025. The project added a third storage tank, additional regasification equipment and a second jetty, enabling the terminal to receive more cargoes and support services beyond conventional pipeline delivery.
Poland also receives Norwegian gas through the Baltic Pipe system. The approximately 900-kilometer route connects Norway, Denmark and Poland and can deliver up to 10 billion cubic meters annually toward the Polish market. Together, Baltic Pipe and Świnoujście changed Poland’s supply position by creating large import routes that do not depend on Russian infrastructure.
A second LNG entry point is being developed in the Gulf of Gdańsk. The planned floating storage and regasification unit is designed to provide at least 6.1 billion cubic meters of annual capacity. The project includes offshore facilities and roughly 250 kilometers of new onshore pipelines linking the terminal with the national network. Commissioning is planned around 2028.
Interest in an additional floating unit shows that Poland is considering a role larger than its domestic market. With pipelines connecting it to Lithuania, Slovakia, Germany, Czechia and Ukraine, Poland could distribute Baltic LNG and Norwegian gas across Central and Eastern Europe. Whether all proposed capacity is needed over the long term will depend on regional gas demand and the pace of decarbonization, but the infrastructure gives Poland greater strategic flexibility.
Cross-Border Links Strengthen Poland’s Regional Position
Poland’s electricity network is also becoming more closely integrated with surrounding systems. It has cross-border links with Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, Sweden, Lithuania and Ukraine, although the technical structure and available trading capacity differ among these routes.
The LitPol Link between Poland and Lithuania gained additional strategic importance when the Baltic states synchronized their electricity systems with continental Europe in February 2025. Poland now provides the principal physical connection between the Baltic synchronous area and the wider Central European grid.
Cross-border infrastructure can support Poland during periods of low renewable generation or unexpected plant outages. It can also allow surplus Polish wind and solar electricity to reach external buyers. However, interconnectors cannot solve domestic congestion when power cannot move efficiently between regions inside Poland. International integration and internal grid construction must therefore advance together.
District Heating Is Poland’s Other Major Network Challenge
Electricity and gas assets receive much of the attention, but district heating remains a central part of Polish energy infrastructure. Licensed heating companies operated more than 23,000 kilometers of district heating networks in 2024, supplying apartment buildings, public facilities and businesses across many cities.
These systems were largely developed around coal-fired boilers and combined heat and power plants. Modernizing them will require changes in both generation and distribution. Possible replacements include gas during the transition, biomass, large heat pumps, geothermal energy, electric boilers, waste heat, thermal storage and lower-temperature networks.
The difficulty is that district heating must remain reliable during cold winters while operators replace equipment and manage higher carbon costs. Large cities may be able to support diversified heat sources and major investment programs. Smaller municipal systems may face greater financial pressure because they have fewer customers over which to spread modernization costs.
Closer coordination between electricity and heat infrastructure could create new flexibility. Heat pumps and electric boilers can absorb electricity when renewable output is high, while thermal storage allows heat production and consumption to occur at different times. Poland’s heating networks could therefore become assets for balancing the power system rather than remaining separate from it.
Infrastructure Will Determine the Speed of Poland’s Transition
Poland has already diversified its gas import routes and begun one of Europe’s largest transmission-grid investment programs. The next stage is more difficult because several changes must happen together. Coal capacity will decline, renewable generation will continue to expand, offshore wind will shift production toward the Baltic, and nuclear power could introduce large new units in the north.
The success of this transition will depend less on the announcement of new generating projects than on whether transmission lines, distribution grids, storage facilities, ports, pipelines and heating networks are completed at the required pace. Poland’s energy resources are changing quickly. Its infrastructure must now catch up.
