Capacity fee – guidelines

From the beginning of 2021, the increase in electricity bills by the so-called “capacity fee” has become a reality. What is a capacity fee and what does it involve?

The capacity fee is an additional component of the electricity bill. It was introduced under the Power Market Act adopted in 2017. The document was intended to prepare the Polish electricity system for the challenges of its transition towards decarbonisation. It is the so-called capacity fee that is supposed to help with this.

The Power Market Act creates a support system for power plants. Power plants will be entitled to remuneration for being on standby to supply power. Funding for this purpose will come precisely from the capacity fee. This will make the system more stable and prepared for the development of power generation capacity from renewable sources.

Capacity fee – cost and calculations

According to the legislation, both households and businesses will be subject to the capacity fee. For the former group, the fee will depend on annual energy consumption. Obviously, individual consumption levels have different rates, ranging from PLN 2.30 per month gross to PLN 12.87 per month gross.

However, the vast majority of the funds paid from the so-called capacity fee will come from entrepreneurs. Its amount will be determined based on a calculation as the product of the amount of energy consumed during peak power demand hours, i.e. between 7:00 and 22:00 on business days, and a fixed rate of 0.0762 PLN/kWh. It is worth noting that such arrangements allow for some “creative” approaches involving, for example, shifting the business’s increased demand for electricity outside peak hours. In addition, companies with continuous production will experience the costs related to the capacity fee differently than companies that work standard hours.

What is the capacity fee used for

The power market is a long-term solution. It is primarily intended to serve as a sustainable support for the Polish electricity system. Unfortunately, it will come with an increase in energy bills. Therefore, both individual consumers and businesses should consider ways to offset these expenses by using RES solutions, i.e. installing PV panels or energy storage.

Is it possible to limit the capacity fee?

For these reasons, one can look at the offer of PV panel suppliers with interest. Especially, it is worth paying attention to our rich offer. We offer high-quality installations using thin-film technology with significantly higher power density. These state-of-the-art devices allow our clients to generate much more electricity than monocrystalline panels. In addition, we also have a wide range of energy storage, which makes our solutions attractive to businesses. Indeed, CAT photovoltaic solutions implemented by Eneria will not only equip the company with an additional source of electricity and contribute to significant savings, but also enable the construction of an emergency power supply system, which is particularly important for all those plants where uninterrupted operation of equipment is a guarantee of profit.

Solar PV and the capacity fee

Eneria – with its experts and engineers – offers comprehensive support for investment in PV solutions, including the design, installation and service of such devices. This makes our company a particularly convenient partner to start working with. It is worth noting that we have useful product selection tools, including subsidy value calculators or PV panel price calculators.

Cogeneration and the capacity fee

A solution may also be the construction of a CHP system based on gas generators (so-called cogeneration), which allows simultaneous generation of electricity and heat for a period of more than 8000h/year. We boast that our cogeneration systems fall into the category of high-efficiency units. This means that they feature the most efficient primary energy consumption possible. Thus, the unit, with outputs ranging from 137 kW to 4,500 kW, is able to reduce standard generation losses to just 8%, using as much as 92% of primary energy. This efficiency of the power system means additional savings for companies. Eneria also provides generator unit rental services to further reduce operating costs. Potential clients can count on full investment and technical support at every stage of the project.

In the era of remodelling of the energy market, small amounts of money, resulting from savings achieved in electricity management, can be decisive for the competitiveness of services or products. Therefore, in the current reality, for the sake of additional fees incurred for the purchase of energy, every entrepreneur should consider whether their company would benefit from using the solutions we propose, such as photovoltaic panels or high-efficiency cogeneration.

 email:pkwasowiec@eneria.pl

Written by: Paweł Kawsowiec

CHP Solutions  Expert