GAS TRADING, POLAND – RETAIL

Supply sources

The table below presents the natural gas acquisition sources of PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny.

Tariff

In the period from January 1st 2015 to August 31st 2015, PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny Gas Fuel Trading Tariff No. 1, approved by the President of the Energy Regulatory Office on December 17th 2014, was in effect.

On August 13th 2015, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office approved PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny Amended Gas Fuel Trading Tariff No. 1, in which the average prices of gas fuel (including the price of gas fuel and subscription fee) were reduced by 6.5% in the case of high-methane gas, 2.5% in the case of nitrogen-rich gas (Lw), and by 0.8% for customers receiving Ls nitrogenrich gas (group Z-7B). The amended tariff came in force on September 1st 2015 and was effective until December 31st 2015.

On December 17th 2015, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office approved PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny Gas Fuel Supply Tariff No. 2, effective from January 1st 2016 to March 31st 2016.

The average prices of gas fuel were reduced by:

• 3.3% in the case of high-methane gas, including 3.5% for households (tariff groups W-1 to W-4) and 2% for business customers (the other tariff groups);
• 2.8% in the case of nitrogen-rich gas (Lw);
• 2.1% in the case of nitrogen-rich gas (Ls).

The full text of the tariffs, including the prices and fee rates, is available at www.oferta.pgnig.pl and www.ure.gov.pl.

Discounting policy in 2015

In 2015, PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny Sp. z o.o. launched a number of promotional schemes for its largest customers. In April 2015, the ‘Flexible Price’ offer was in place, as part of which customers were given a discount on the tariff price of gas fuel and the possibility to change the due dates for payment and the number of preliminary invoices. Given the considerable interest in the offer among its customers, in June 2015 the company launched a new edition of the scheme − ‘Flexible Price II’. In June 2015, a ‘Constant Savings for Business’ offer was also introduced, with a number of optional solutions for the Company’s largest customers. Another discount scheme, ‘Automatic 5% Promotion’, was intended for those customers who did not take advantage of any of the offers described above. The scheme, covering the period from July 1st 2015 to December 31st 2015, envisaged a 5% discount on the tariff price of gas fuel.

In view of the considerable interest in the discount schemes among its customers, in 2015 PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny Sp. z o.o. launched new editions of the ‘Flexible Price’ and ‘Constant Savings for Business’ schemes, designed for a broad base of the company’s business customers.

Moreover, in December 2015, a special offer was rolled out to procurement groups, offering the same pricing terms to all customers forming a procurement group. A new product, the ‘Indexed Offer’, was also added for business customers with special expectations with respect to gas consumption billing based on their own pricing formulas or specific exchange-traded products.

Gas sales – customer overview

PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny’s business customers include chemical and petrochemical companies, glass and steel works and other entities which require process gas for the manufacture of products, as well as businesses buying gas for heating purposes, operating on the heat generation, industrial, services and retail markets. The breakdown of the company’s customer base by tariff groups reveals a very large presence of small and medium-sized customers. A similar relation has been found between sales volumes and the number of customers.

The largest group of customers by number are businesses operating in the retail and services segment, whereas industrial customers lead in terms of gas volumes received.

As at December 31st 2015, PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny supplied gas to more than 6.8 million retail customers (households and small businesses), mostly for domestic uses. Small business customers also use natural gas in manufacturing processes conducted as part of their business.

Sales of electricity – customer base

PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny sells electricity both to retail and business customers, mostly small and medium-sized companies.

Electricity is sold through a network of Business Consultants and Customer Service Offices.

Customer service

Throughout 2015, PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny continued to work on enhancing customer satisfaction and minimising the risk of losing its customers to competitors.

In the retail customer segment (which includes households and small businesses), relevant measures consisted mostly in developing electronic customer service channels to enable faster and easier contact with the company, with a key focus on the company’s website (the online customer service) and the e-BOK (electronic Customer Service Point) system.

2015 saw an increase in the number of customers using the ‘eco-invoice’ service (allowing customers to receive an electronic image of their invoice), which considerably improved the efficiency and speed of invoice transfer to customers, while generating savings in the correspondence delivery process.

Gas supplier change statistics

According to the Energy Regulatory Office, in 2015 nearly 23 thousand customers in Poland changed their gas fuel supplier, with the figure expected to rise in the years to come.