France sets capacity-cost tax rules; grid managers owe €124.9m first prepayment

Décret n° 2026-936 du 8 octobre 2026 and the arrêté of the same day set the implementing rules for the taxe de répartition des coûts du mécanisme de capacitéLegifrance created at article L.322-5 du Code des impositions sur les biens et services (CIBS)Legifrance. The decree creates the D-series regulatory articles for the tax — D.322-2, D.322-3, D.322-5, D.322-8, D.322-10, D.322-13 and D.322-16 through D.322-20 — covering the amount, the persons subject to tax obligations, assessment and payment including acomptes, plus an amendment to article D.171-5 — while the order creates the A-series articles A.322-4, A.322-6, A.322-7, A.322-9, A.322-11, A.322-12, A.322-14, A.322-15, A.322-21 and A.322-22 and amends the annex of the arrêté du 18 mars 2026 on the French capacity-mechanism rules. The regime applies to the delivery period from 1 November 2026 to 31 March 2027Legifrance.

The tax falls on the supply or consumption of electricity by a capacity-mechanism contributor during the system's tension period, on metropolitan continental FranceLegifrance. A contributor means the supplier authorised under article L.333-1 du Code de l'énergie for quantities supplied to consumers on the taxation territory, or a person consuming electricity there — including to compensate its own losses — for quantities not supplied by such an authorised personLegifrance; consumption through an unconnected system is disregarded. Distribution-network managers send the transmission-system manager the data needed to compute each debtor's withdrawn power, under arrangements approved by the energy minister after the opinion of the CRE.

Each debtor's bill equals the quotient of the amount to finance over the total power withdrawn by all contributors — both figures certified by the CRE on the transmission manager's proposal — multiplied by the contributor's own power withdrawn during the tension periodLegifrance. The amount to finance aggregates the transmission manager's remuneration paid to the operators in article L.316-1 du Code de l'énergie (plus non-deductible VAT) under procedures completed before the period starts, the gap between tax chargeable and the financed amount for prior periods, prior-period contract settlements not yet counted, definitively irrecoverable sums certified by ministerial order, minus penalties collected under article L.321-17 — counting only items established by the first day of the month before the delivery period. By derogation, each debtor's amount is certified by the transmission-system manager's notification; the tax is paid in acomptesLegifrance; disputes follow the energy code and recovery the civil-enforcement code.

For the 2026–2027 delivery period only, transitional rules narrow the first acompteLegifrance: it is owed only by two debtors for their electricity losses: the public transmission-system manager in article L.111-40 du Code de l'énergie and the public distribution-network company in 1° of article L.111-52Legifrance. The invoice for that first acompte had to be sent by 10 October 2026Legifrance and is payable by titre interbancaire de paiement no later than 30 days after dispatchLegifrance. The total first acompte collected by the transmission manager is fixed at €124,893,323.27Legifrance, split 24.36% to the transmission manager and 75.64% to the distribution companyLegifrance. For those two debtors, the second acompte equals the estimated tax under article D.322-18 minus the first acompte, floored at zero; for all other contributors, the second acompte equals the estimated tax.

Legal basis: décret n° 2026-936 du 8 octobre 2026 and the arrêté du 8 octobre 2026 relatifs à la taxe de répartition des coûts du mécanisme de capacité, applying article L.322-5 and the sous-section 1 of section 2, chapter II, title II, book III of the Code des impositions sur les biens et services, with the calculation, assessment and penalty rules at articles L.322-13 to L.322-20 of that code.