The foun­ding meeting of the Asso­cia­tion of Inde­pen­dent Com­bi­ned Heat and Power Pro­du­cers (SNWES) was held on 14 April 2005 in War­saw. The ini­tia­ti­ve to esta­blish the Asso­cia­tion was born under the influ­en­ce of the gro­wing diver­gen­ce betwe­en the EU stra­te­gy (Coge­ne­ra­tion Direc­ti­ve 2004/8/EC) and the Polish stra­te­gy (Ener­gy Poli­cy of Poland until 2025) con­cer­ning the deve­lop­ment of local coge­ne­ra­tion sys­tems, as well as gas-fired power plants in general.
In fact, this has led to the decom­mis­sio­ning of an incre­asing num­ber of small and medium-sized gas-fired CHP sour­ces built by inde­pen­dent inve­stors. The asso­cia­tion was set up by repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of the district heating and gas indu­stry, inde­pen­dent inve­stors from out­si­de the main ener­gy sec­tor and the scien­ti­fic com­mu­ni­ty rela­ted to energy.
The goal of the Asso­cia­tion in 2005 was to pro­vi­de non-discri­mi­na­to­ry con­di­tions for inde­pen­dent coge­ne­ra­tion pro­du­cers ope­ra­ting out­si­de the main ener­gy sec­tor. In the medium term, the aim was to build a public-pri­va­te part­ner­ship inc­lu­ding district heating, gas and muni­ci­pa­li­ties, aimed at deve­lo­ping distri­bu­ted coge­ne­ra­tion in coope­ra­tion with distri­bu­tion sys­tem ope­ra­tors (DSO). In the long term, the aim was to cre­ate con­di­tions for the imple­men­ta­tion of new gene­ra­tion tech­no­lo­gies, inc­lu­ding hydro­gen tech­no­lo­gies, thro­ugh the deve­lop­ment of local coge­ne­ra­tion sources.
Despi­te the pas­sa­ge of almost 13 years from the date of esta­bli­sh­ment of the Asso­cia­tion of Inde­pen­dent Com­bi­ned Heat and Power Pro­du­cers — the abo­ve pre­sen­ted goals are still valid.