Energetics likes “slicing”, namely dividing of an investment into a few stages implemented in specified time intervals and based on separate administrative decisions. Well, costs of any enterprise in this sector are big, if not enormous, no wonder that such an investment is divided into elements. However, when it comes to construction permits, such practices may not be applied to investment plans which the investor would like to divide only in accordance with their size or level of complexity.

The investment plan is divided only if more than one object is erected and only when such object is able to exist independently as intended (Article 31(1) of the Construction Law). This fact is reminded by the judgement of the Polish Supreme Administrative Court dated 30 July 2024 (ref. no. II OSK 1299/24). The courts of the 1^st and the 2^nd instance assumed that identifying of the “investment plan” being the subject of a specified investment process takes place as early as during the proceedings regarding the environmental requirements. Thus, investment plans cannot be treated differently at the stage of issuing construction permits.

In the discussed case, the Polish authority (in this case, the voivode) refused to grant a construction permit to a photovoltaic farm project. The project design lacked the arrangement regarding connection of the planned power plant with the existing power network. The voivode pointed out that the required construction of the medium-voltage cable line, as per the connection conditions, does not constitute a connection referred to in Article 29(1)(23) of the Construction Law. Therefore, it cannot be argued that this part of the investment may be implemented as part of a separate development.

Thus, Polish provisions do not allow for issuing a construction permit based on the application covering only a part of the investment plan that cannot function properly on its own. This shows that the investor should not apply for administrative decisions with regard to investment plans that they divided into stages only due to their size or level of complexity and not due to the possibility of their independent existence, irrespective of the remaining stages of the enterprise.