Capacity fee hours: which hours and days count

As of 27 October 2026. Rates and peak hours are announced for each year separately.

Under hourly settlement, the capacity fee is charged on the energy drawn from the grid in peak hours, which the regulations call the “selected hours” of the day. The same hours decide each day’s K1-K4 category.

Peak hours in 2026

The President of URE announces the peak hours for each year. For 2026, Information No. 57/2025 of 30 October 2025 sets fifteen consecutive hours on every working day, from 7:00 to 22:00. The last peak hour begins at 21:00.

Working days, weekends and holidays

Peak hours apply on working days only. Saturdays, Sundays and statutory public holidays, including holidays that fall on a weekday, are off-peak all day, so the energy drawn from the grid on those days carries no capacity fee. Each day is classified on its own, so weekend grid import does not affect the category of any working day either.

Why the off-peak hours count too

Energy drawn off-peak is not charged, but it does enter the formula for the day’s category. The category depends on how far the average hourly import in peak hours exceeds the average hourly import in the remaining hours of the same day; on a working day that means 15 peak hours against 9 off-peak hours. More off-peak import therefore lowers the Δs coefficient, and less off-peak import raises it. K1-K4 categories and calculator

One day is one qualification period

Since 1 January 2025 the category has been set for each day separately. The fee for a month is the sum of the fees for that month’s working days. Capacity fee: what it is and who pays

Sources

• Information of the President of the Energy Regulatory Office (URE) No. 57/2025 of 30 October 2025 on the selected hours for 2026
• Capacity Market Act of 8 December 2017 (ustawa o rynku mocy), Article 70a

This page is for information only. It is not legal advice or an offer: the law and your distribution operator’s tariff prevail.