IN Brief:
- PSE has announced stage IX of its transformer renewal programme, covering 13 devices designated AT across eight Polish substations.
- The three packages include design, equipment supply, installation, commissioning and configuration of monitoring devices.
- Named works at Norki, Wigry and Baczyna receive different forms of EU co-financing; awards and individual equipment ratings are unconfirmed.
Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE), Poland’s transmission system operator, has issued stage IX of its transformer modernisation procurement. The EU notice, published on 19 October 2026 as 718912-2026, seeks design, supply, installation and commissioning work for 13 devices designated “AT” across eight substations. The equipment is described in the procurement as AT units, conventionally denoting autotransformers. The notice announces a competition, not selected manufacturers, contract awards or installed equipment.
PSE has divided the work into three packages. Package I covers two devices at Norki. Package II contains seven units: two at Wigry, one at Kromolice, two at Blachownia and two at Podborze. Package III includes one at Baczyna, two at Tarnów and one at Wielopole. The three packages therefore cover 13 units at eight sites, although the EU procurement classification is labelled “voltage transformers”. That classification is not a substitute for the full equipment schedules or a basis for inventing voltage ratios, MVA ratings or monitoring specifications.
The contractor’s obligations extend beyond delivering large items of electrical plant. The notice requires designing and manufacturing, or procuring with a transfer of ownership, the equipment, bringing it to its final substation position, installing it and commissioning the associated monitoring devices. Delivery sequencing must therefore allow for existing electrical connections, site access, foundations, auxiliary supplies, protection interfaces and acceptance testing. Work at an operational transmission substation also requires the operator to coordinate planned outages and switching so that the new equipment can be brought into service safely.
An autotransformer uses a winding arrangement in which the high-voltage and lower-voltage circuits share part of the winding, rather than being completely galvanically separated as in a conventional two-winding transformer. Such equipment is used to connect transmission voltage levels where the system design allows it. The principal engineering questions include insulation, earthing, cooling, available fault current, short-circuit strength and the rating of adjoining network components. None of those values can be established for individual PSE units from the tender summary alone.
At Norki, Wigry and the other named substations, replacement or additional transformer equipment can affect which network paths are available during planned maintenance or a fault. Higher transformer capacity does not automatically translate into an equivalent increase in transfer capability across the regional grid. Conductors, switchgear and protection settings can still constrain the circuit, while switching arrangements determine how much of the equipment can remain available during installation. PSE has not quantified a resulting network-wide megawatt increase in this notice.
Installation work has to accommodate the physical and electrical requirements of large substation equipment. Transport and lifting arrangements, support foundations, oil containment where applicable, high-voltage clearances, earthing and testing are all governed by the final design. Monitoring may enable condition-based assessment of the units through sensors and communications equipment, but the notice does not specify a particular supplier platform or establish any measured reduction in faults. Those benefits would have to be demonstrated through the commissioned assets and their subsequent operating history.
Some packages are linked to European Union support. PSE associates the Norki units with Connecting Europe Facility co-financing and identifies the two Wigry units for the same programme. The Baczyna unit is associated with FENiKS funding. The information does not establish EU financing for all 13 devices; nor does it give a single contract value, equipment rating table or supplier shortlist. Precise funding conditions belong to the respective projects and tender documentation.
The three-package structure allows bids to be submitted for defined groups of substations rather than necessarily making one supplier responsible for the entire programme. A procurement listing gives 5 February 2027 as the principal deadline, while another tracker indicates a different date for package II. Because such differences could affect bidder compliance, tenderers must use the live PSE procurement documents for lot-specific deadlines, not a date inferred from a summary website. No award or start-of-installation date is confirmed by the 19 October notice.
Lead times for high-voltage equipment can encompass design approval, winding and insulation manufacture, factory acceptance testing, delivery by heavy transport and work at substations that remain part of an energised grid. Synchronising those steps across several locations is a separate task from winning a tender. PSE’s previous equipment procurements and substation upgrades may form the context for its maintenance programme, but do not establish progress on the units in this stage IX package.
The immediate result is an open equipment and installation competition with three defined packages, 13 AT-designated units and an explicit commissioning and monitoring scope. PSE has not identified successful bidders, prices or completion dates. Those details will depend on the live procurement process and subsequent award and delivery announcements.
