Energy Regulatory Office Consumers’ Knowledge Regulated: “Bills Under Consumer’s Control”, a Poland-wide awareness campaign by the URE (Energy Regulatory Office) - News

The campaign is intended to provide access to reliable knowledge that will help consumers make informed decisions on the electricity market. An URE official website’s dedicated educational campaign tab is a simple, consumer-friendly source of understanding about specific electricity bill components, with an explanation of how electricity is supplied to households.

For this campaign, the URE developed “The Guide to Electricity Consumer Rights” and “Bills Under Consumer’s Control: URE Information Booklet”, which explains the available consumer energy purchase options on the electricity market and electricity bill components.

There is a QR code in the booklet which links to the dedicated tab on the URE official website for consumers to find a reliable, up-to-date educational content.

To ensure a wide outreach of the campaign, the URE sent the educational content to nearly four thousand recipients, including local authority agencies, city and municipal consumer ombudsmen, Third Age Universities, and central government agencies (the Ministry of Climate and Environment, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Welfare Policy, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, the Association of Energy Trading (TOE), the Polish Electricity Association (PKEE), and the Polish Housing Association’s Revision Society (ZRSM RP) with a request for downstream distribution.

“The Guide to Electricity Consumer Rights”.

The Guide features useful information about the rights of private household electricity consumers and the workings of the electricity sales and distribution market. The production and distribution of the Guide aligns with the catalogue of educational and informative activities undertaken by the URE in cooperation with specific energy market actors.

The Guide includes details concerning:

• verified and reliable sources of consumer insights;
• the rights of electricity consumers;
• the obligations of electricity consumers and consumer rights concerning electricity service connection and respective connection contract components;
• the reserve electricity sales, as a fallback in the event that the consumer loses their current electricity reseller;
• the principles of concluding and terminating electricity sales and distribution contracts, along with the contract components;
• the right to choose the electricity provider and the process of electricity reseller switching;
• electricity tariffs and their components;
• specific items of electricity invoices, the procedures for invoice correction, settlements, and payment methods;
• operating aspects of metering and billing systems (power meters);
• complaint procedures applicable to energy supply and quality standards.

The URE official website features the latest downloadable revision of the Guide aligned with the laws prevailing as on 1 July 2025. The Compendium (in Polish) is available in two versions:

• full-colour, complete with illustrations and recommended by the URE;
• black and white, without illustrations and optimised for printing — this version is intended first for electricity resellers.

Educational campaigns by the URE

“Bills Under Consumer’s Control” is not the first campaign by the URE. The URE believes that effective, proactive communication and knowledge sharing are important to fostering the awareness of all energy market actors. It is why the URE always strives to meet the needs of energy market actors, consumers in particular.

From 24 August 2024, electricity resellers can introduce a new offering type addressed to private consumers: dynamic pricing contracts. This offering is for the consumers aware of the principles governing the energy market, using remote-reading electricity meters and monthly billing.

In October 2024, the URE launched its campaign for dynamic pricing contracts. The objective was to provide the public with an understanding of the benefits and risks of this electricity purchase offering. For the campaign project, the URE prepared the “Electricity Bills: URE Information Booklet”. This educational content, developed by URE experts, was sent to selected Polish ministries, the Government Information Centre, PSE, the Polish Energy Exchange (TGE), the largest power generating corporate groups, city and municipal ombudsmen, city and borough councils, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, and Third Age Universities. The Negotiation Coordinator of the President of the URE was engaged in the campaign, too.

In March 2025, the URE published a booklet and practical guide for electricity consumers which explains how to deal with disputes and complaints concerning the business of energy companies.