Poland electrifies only 17–18% of its economy today, against a French plan to lift electrification from 30% to 50% over the coming years, a gap PSE chief executive Grzegorz Onichimowski described as a “civilisational distance” at the 16th European Financial Congress (EKF) in Sopot. Chairing a round table on rational energy transition, he argued that the economy’s future belongs to electricity and that for Poland, electrification is a key condition of security, economic resilience and sovereignty.
Onichimowski framed electricity as a universal medium set to power cars, perhaps ships, heat homes and feed new demand from AI and IT, to the point where the price of electricity begins to set the price of information and innovation. The stakes, he said, are unusually high. TAURON chief executive Grzegorz Lot added that only 5% of Polish households use the savings options their suppliers offer, and that customers want round-the-clock supply that is green, low-emission and cheap, with renewables the cheapest source and distribution costs the key lever to bring down.
The security dimension ran through the debate. MEP Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz argued that electricity is decisive on the front line in Ukraine, where it determines communications, surveillance and connectivity, and warned that Poland would lose its competitive position without a decisive turn toward electric power.
For the Baltic region, where several states are pushing electrification alongside renewables build-out, the Polish discussion is a useful marker: the case for electrification is increasingly made in the language of security and resilience, not only climate. The EKF in Sopot remains one of the EU’s more prominent economic forums, gathering financial-sector leaders, policymakers and economists.
