The capacity fee goes back to the bills. Here's what's at stake

The Energy Regulatory Office (URE) announced on Monday that from January 1, 2025, the capacity fee will reappear in household bills, which for an average household consumer will amount to PLN 11.44 net per month.

“In the second half of this year, by decision of the legislator, the capacity fee was not collected from consumers. However, from January 1, 2025, most consumers in households consuming from 1,200 kWh to 2,800 kWh of electricity annually will pay an average of PLN 11.44 in capacity fees. net per month,” the office explained.

The regulator indicated that the capacity fee is intended to finance energy security. At the end of September this year the President of the Energy Regulatory Office set its amount for 2025.

As the regulator reminded, the capacity fee is one of the items visible on electricity bills from 2021, as a consequence of the Capacity Market Act adopted in 2017, which introduced a mechanism to reward energy producers for their readiness to supply power to the network. “The main justification for introducing this fee was the need to ensure stability and security of electricity supplies,” he recalled.

URE indicated that when calculating the capacity fee rate, it took into account, among others: the value of capacity contracts concluded as part of the auction for 2025, costs resulting from long-term contracts concluded as part of previous auctions, as well as significantly lower electricity consumption (by 9%) by consumers during selected hours of the day.

The capacity supplier support program is scheduled to operate until 2047. The cost of the capacity market in 2024 was nearly PLN 6.1 billion compared to PLN 5.3 billion in 2023. The amount of capacity obligations contracted in the auctions for 2025 is slightly over PLN 6.4 PLN billion