The Polish Hydropower Conference HYDROFORUM 2025 concluded on October 9th with a cruise on Lake Rożnów and a study visit to the Rożnów Hydropower Plant. The conference was attended by 124 participants, including 15 delegates from abroad: Austria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Norway, Slovenia, Ukraine, and the USA. During the two days preceding the study visit, 33 papers were presented and two panel debates were held on the following topics: the role of hydropower – especially pumped storage – in regulating the power system and the problems of maintaining hydraulic civil engineering infrastructure in our country in the face of climate change and the energy transformation.
The patronage over the entire event has been taken over by the following entities: Polish Ministry of Infrastructure, “Wody Polskie” State Water Holding, the Cracow University of Technology and the TAURON Group. TAURON Group provided also financial support and through its subsidiaries – TAURON Ekoenergia and Ekoserwis – joined the organizational activities of the Polish Hydropower Association (TEW), the Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Association of Small Hydropower Development (TRMEW).
The conference was opened by the Director of the Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery, Prof. Marcin Lackowski, who, together with his Deputy for Research, Prof. Grzegorz Żywica, also participated in the further debates. Other notable conference participants included: Ms. Magdalena Żmuda (Deputy President of “Wody Polskie”), Mr. Mariusz Mazur (Director of the Institute of Power Engineering), Prof. Maciej Sułowicz (Dean of the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cracow University of Technology), and Mr. Vadym Rassovskyi (President of the "Hydropower of Ukraine" Association and Chief Engineer as well as Deputy Director of the "Ukrhydroenergo" Company). Polish hydropower associations were represented by their board chairpersons: Ms. Ewa Malicka (TRMEW) and Dr. Janusz Steller (TEW).
A complete list of sponsors, members of the Honorary, Scientific, and Organizing Committees, and all participants of HYDROFORUM 2025 are to be found in the Conference Proceedings, together with extended abstracts and/or conference mini-papers. The Proceedings are now available from the TEW website together with the photographic documentation of the Conference. In the mid of November they are planned to be supplemented with conference presentations in PDF format.
