In the middle of each month, we publish a set of key statistics on the coal market in Poland on our blog and X platform. The data is published with a 1.5-month delay, following announcements by the Energy Market Agency and the Industrial Development Agency, Katowice Branch. In this issue, we additionally present a summary of the entire 2024.
To begin with, let’s take a look at how much electricity was produced from hard coal and other fuels over the month. Supplying a substantial part of the demand is coal’s fundamental, though not the only role.
The drop in temperature in December meant an increase in energy demand and production. Domestic power plants produced 0.8 TWh more than in November, mainly due to lignite, followed by hard coal and wind. The share of photovoltaic energy ‘shrunk’ to 1% of production, wind provided 17%, and gas 14%. In total, 4/5 of our energy came from emission sources.
Throughout 2024, energy production and the share of emission-free sources increased compared to the previous year. Coal fell below 60% in the electricity mix for the first time, providing 57% of gross energy, a decrease of 4 p.p. from 2023. In its place, wind, PV and gas increased. The amount of energy supplied from hard coal (59 TWh) was 10% less than the previous year, so the demand for coal for energy generation decreased. However, the same cannot be said for lignite, from which 1.3 TWh (+4%) more energy was generated.
More data on electricity production by source is available on the chart Electricity production, source: ARE
Hard coal
Below, we analyse the monthly and yearly data from the hard coal sector. The comments refer to the charts constantly available on energy.instrat.pl in the Mining section.
Symbols mean:
↗️ a rise
↘️ a decrease
= marginal or no difference in comparison to the previous month
Production and sales of hard coal
COAL PRODUCTION – 3.85 Mt ↘
COAL SALES – 4.22 Mt ↗
In December, coal production was 40 000 tonnes lower than in November, while sales increased by more than 200 000 tonnes.
COAL PRODUCTION 2024 – 44.0 Mt ↘
COAL SALES 2024 – 42.5 Mt ↘
Both yearly values showed a significant decrease compared to the previous year. Domestic mines sold 3.6 million tonnes less coal than in 2023; production also fell by 4.4 million tonnes. Such value is comparable to the annual coal export from Poland. On the other hand, imported material played a relatively marginal role in 2024. The energy production graph shows that the demand for hard coal has fallen significantly in favour of gas and renewable energy sources, which continue to push it out of the mix. Currently, the production capacity of some mines has also been reduced – over the past year, there have been 3 major mining disasters in the Bobrek-Piekary, Knurów-Szczygłowice and ROW mines with fatalities, which have resulted in the shutdown of some deposits.
Hard coal reserves
TOTAL – 13.70 Mt ↗
RESERVES AT MINING SITES (mining) – 5.36 Mt ↘
RESERVES AT MINING SITES, PURCHASED (by the power industry) – 0.31 Mt ↗
RESERVES AT POWER PLANTS (power industry) – 8.03 Mt ↗
Poland’s total coal reserves have increased (+2% since November), reaching 13.7 million tonnes. The sum represents an increase of approx. 600 000 tonnes compared to the end of last year. The balance of mine stocks decreased, while the amount of coal purchased and awaiting transport and coal in power plant warehouses increased. The latter location recorded the most significant monthly increase in 15 months (+610 000 tonnes).
Employment in hard coal mining
74 114 persons ↘
Employment is still at an all-time low and has fallen by almost 260 people in a month.
Year on year, there are 2 000 fewer jobs, meaning a return to a negative balance – in 2020-2022, at the end of each December, there were 2 to 3 thousand fewer jobs than in the previous year, and only 2023 brought a rebound.
In December, 37 000 employees of Polska Grupa Górnicza took part in a survey on a voluntary redundancy programme. As many as one-third expressed their willingness to leave their jobs in mining, provided they receive a one-off severance payment or are transferred to a bridging leave until retirement.
Hard coal price for electricity generation (PSCMI1)
PSCMI 1 – 458 PLN/t ↘
The index decreased slightly (by 3 PLN per tonne). The price per gigajoule of energy contained in the fuel is already below 21 PLN. PSCMI is 1/4 cheaper than a year ago.
Hard coal price for heating (PSCMI 2)
PSCMI 2 – 546 PLN/t ↗
Coal for the heating industry with a sizable rebound of 7% from November. The price is around 1/5 lower than a year ago.
That is all in the current issue. We thank you for reading our Coal Brief and invite you to share it.
More information
On January 15th, we published information about the update of our database: Coal mines in Poland. It contains, among others, a complete list of active deposits, annual statistics of mines and the current closure dates. We invite you to take a look at it!
Contact
Wojciech Przedlacki, Product Owner energy.instrat.pl, [email protected]
