Why can’t power engineers comment on energy topics?

Imagine the famous “Lviv School of Mathematics” if suddenly, during the famous discussions and solving of epoch-making mathematical problems in cafes, they suddenly found that they got completely different results than they had assumed, or Oppenheimer leading the team creating the bomb, who suddenly perceives that the chain reaction does not work, or Schroedinger, who nevertheless built his famous device and sadly noted that the cat always dies. They must abandon their past experiences and look at the scientific problem differently. The energy world is somehow different and can only be dealt with by politicians, historians, political scientists, lawyers and satirists. Well, because in the end …
In a country without green energy for industry, periodically reducing RES production is already common.
Again, we will freeze energy prices at 500 PLN/MWh when energy on the exchange on sale was below 300 and is now 400, but in the ERO tariff, it is near 700 and will be 600, and in this half of the year, it will be frozen at 412.
The largest national resource is coal, but mining is more expensive than in other countries, so importing it to a country where mining (periodically) is too small for the needs is forbidden. This will make (domestic) prices even higher.
Fear fell on users of domestic gas boilers (EBPD Directive), but no one read these regulations because coal stoves continue to burn garbage without problems.
The mining industry records huge losses and requires subsidies from the budget, but workers receive rewards from profits.
Air pollution in some areas, often considered tourist areas, is gigantic, but a large part of society insists that using old emission cars and smoggy fuels is a matter of personal freedom—meaning I’ll die earlier, but I’ll be free.
We never have time for current problems, but we would happily invest and solve such in 10-20 years (e.g., small nuclear reactors).
We were once supposed to have shale gas, but everyone forgot about it. Occasionally, rare metal deposits that can be mined in Suwałki are mentioned.
We will soon launch dynamic tariffs (for residential customers) and further freeze their prices in tariffs that are dynamic but frozen.
We protest strongly against the ETS (CO2 fees) that by this we pay higher bills, but at the same time, most of the money for this goes to extra bonuses for people and other subsidies – and for the power industry only the leftovers.
Regardless of the government, the energy transition is handled by at least three ministries (even four), and none has energy in its name, but competently, some issues altogether and some none.
Energy companies make most of their profits (actually, all of their profit) through government subsidies (compensation) for not raising energy prices, and the money for compensation comes “from the government” (i.e., from the printer).
Protesters against the “Green Deal” can’t say exactly what’s in it, but MEPs aren’t involved earlier in the drafting phase of the Directives either.
Since 2019, the average wage has increased by about 45%, and the price of housing in Warsaw has doubled, but any increase in the cost of energy on the bills is a national matter, and here, it can’t get more expensive.
… and so on … any energy specialist can add a little.

Oranienburg (Germany) is facing a blackout. In at least one area (energy), Germany is behind Poland.

Alarming information has come from Germany. There, the city of Oranienburg (near Berlin) has run out of capacity to connect new consumers – there is no energy in the region. Due to the slow development of the power grid, it is impossible to develop a business because there is no “electricity.” For Germany, it is pessimistic; for us, it is optimistic. We have overtaken our neighbour in the energy transition for the first time. In Poland, there has long been a problem with connection conditions, and on top of that, both if you want to connect a consumer and a generator. So, there is nothing new, and we can do seminars and workshops for them. As for the slow development of networks and both transmission and distribution, we are also leading. We are waiting for more information that will allow us to be happy that we are ahead of Germany in the energy race, e.g. the highest negative prices or the degree of complication of the balancing market.

By 2033, PSE will be on time, but the nuclear power plant will not.

Also pessimistic-optimistic, as usual, about the first nuclear power plant. According to the conference panel information of the PSE and in ministerial statements and interviews of decision-makers, it is inevitable that all necessary connections of the first Polish nuclear unit to the national grid will be realized on time by 2033 (optimistically). Unfortunately, according to PSE, the ministry and the company building the plant itself, nothing can be connected by that date, as it doesn’t look like the plant itself will be ready (pessimistically). There is a delay in the project, but we will try to control it 😊 – there is already talk of 2035. This year is another on the long road of schedules of the Polish nuclear program where there has already been talk of 2020, 2022, 2024, 2030, 2033 and now, as you can see, 2035. It is also unclear whether the so-called last word has been said.
Nevertheless, it’s worth being optimistic or at least rationally optimistic-pessimistic – in the middle of the next decade, more offshore wind farms should be ready (if, of course, the so-called phase II is not launched too long), so probably – something can be connected to the grid. In addition, looking at the dynamics of the development of RES sources, technological progress and especially rapid growth of storage, it may be that the nuclear power plant in 2035 will have to perform completely different functions than planned today (you can freely bet that in 2035 all the holidays, provided that the weather conditions are pretty bearable, 100% of generation will be covered by RES, including during the so-called long weekends). So Poland’s first nuclear power plant must adapt to operate on a highly variable load. Quite a large number of shutdowns, or a green hydrogen plant integrated with the reactor, will have to be built on the Baltic Sea, pushing the implementation date to 2040 or later. However, by then, there will already be so much RES with storage (cheap) that the nuclear units will still have to be designed differently, so in 2045.

Any way you look, a professional future is guaranteed until retirement. I write this as a graduate of the nuclear power speciality who has been waiting for a job at a Polish nuclear power plant since the 1990s…