Central Registry of Operators (CRO), formerly: Central Registry of Equipment  and Fire Protection Systems Operators, that concern operators of equipment (constituting fire protection systems and other equipment) which contain 3kg or more of controlled substances or 5 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂ eq) of fluorinated greenhouse gases – shortly : F-gases (until 31 January 2018 - 3 kg of controlled substances and 3 kg of F-gases) was established in accordance with Art. 19. of the Act of 15 May 2015 on substances that deplete the ozone layer and certain fluorinated greenhouse gases (Polish Journal of Laws of 2015, item 881), further modified to adapt to the requirements of the revised act as above (Polish Journal of Laws of 2020, item 2065), hereinafter referred to as “the Act”. Central Registry of Operators is managed in the form of an electronic database by the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Prof. Ignacy Mościcki Industrial Chemistry Institute appointed as a specialized unit in art. 17 of the Act.

Data in the  Central Registry of Operators  are collected in the form electronic Equipment  Logbooks and Fire Protection System Logbooks referred to in art. 14 of the Act.

 In the Regulation of the Minister of the Environment of 27 December 2017 on the Central Register of Operators, the following was specified:

- the method of managing the Central Registry of Operators

- the method of data collection in the Central Registry of Operators

- the method of sharing data collected in the Central Registry of Operators

- the method of securing data collected in the Central Registry of Operators.

- the template of registration form referred to in art. 14 (6) of the Act.

In accordance with Art. 14 (6) of the Act, before drawing up the first Equipment Logbook or Fire Protection System Logbook, the operator is obliged to register by completing the registration form.  The person completing the registration form on behalf of the operator of the equipment or fire protection system becomes the administrator of the operator's account.

Operators can register on the website https://dbcro.ichp.pl/register.

Before registering, please read the "User Manual of the Central Registry of Operators (CRO)" available here.

Operator means an operator within the meaning of Art. 2 point 8 of Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 or an enterprise within the meaning of Art. 3 point 26e of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2009.

In practice, the operator is a user or owner of the equipment or the entity managing the facility in which the equipment is located. The operator is obliged to exercise actual control over the technical operation of the equipment as defined in Art. 4 of the Act, including taking  financial and technical decisions regarding the equipment.

For the purpose of CRO the term "equipment" includes:

a. stationary refrigeration equipment, air – conditioning equipment and heat pumps

b. refrigeration units of refrigerated trucks and trailers defined in Art.2 points 26 and 27 of Regulation No 517/2014

c. electrical switchgear equipment defined in Art. 2 points 36 of Regulation No 517/2014

d. equipment  containing  F-gases as organic solvents

e. Rankine cycles defined in Art. 2 points 34 of Regulation No 517/2014

f. stationary fire protection systems;

For the equipment from (a) to (e) the  Equipment Logbooks are to be established and for f) - Fire Protection System Logbooks are to be established.

Currently,  only  logbooks for equipment containing 3 kg or more of controlled substances defined in Art. 3 point 4 of Regulation No 1005/2009  or  5 tonnes of CO2  equivalent (CO2 eq) or more of F-gases defined in Art. 2 point 1 of Regulation No 517/2014

In accordance with  art. 14 (1) of the Act, Equipment Logbooks and Fire Protection  Logbooks are established by the operator.

In practice, Equipment Logbooks and Fire Protection System Logbooks are set up by the administrator of the operator's account or by the contact persons of the operator's account, who gained access to the CRO after being added to the CRO by the administrator of the operator's account. Currently, no more than 3 contact persons can be assigned to a given logbook, and a given contact person can be assigned to many logbooks at the same time.