In the middle of each month, we publish a set of key statistics on coal mining in Poland on our blog and X (Twitter). The data is published with a 1.5-month delay, following announcements by the Energy Market Agency and the Industrial Development Agency, Katowice Branch.

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 closer to December, the more demand and production of electricity grows. National power plants produced 1 TWh more of it than in October and it was covered mainly from hard-coal-fired units. The share of solar energy shrunk to 2%, wind supplied almost 16% and gas 15%. The presence of the latter has increased in recent years in the course of falling fuel prices and the development of generation capacity. 2287 GWh is the largest recorded production from natural gas in the country’s history. This is almost as much as the average monthly electricity consumption by all households in Poland (2400 GWh in 2023).Â
In total, 4/5 of the electricity came from emission-intensive energy sources.
Hard coal mining in Poland in November
Below, we analyse the monthly 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 – 3.89 Mt ↘
COAL SALES – 4.00 Mt ↗
Production did not remain as high as in October and fell below 4 million tonnes. Conversely, sales have been increasing since September. The sales are probably influenced by coal prices, which have been falling almost continuously for more than a year.
Hard coal reserves
TOTAL – 13.45 Mt ↘
RESERVES AT MINING SITES (mining) – 5.74 Mt ↘
RESERVES AT MINING SITES, PURCHASED (by the power industry) – 0.29 Mt ↗
RESERVES AT POWER PLANTS (power industry) – 7.42 Mt ↘
The total coal reserves fell by 3% since October, reaching nearly 13.5 million tonnes. The balance of reserves at power plants’ storages shrunk by 290 th. tonnes, while at mines it shrunk by 120 th. tonnes. The amount of coal bought by power plants and awaiting shipment from mining sites has increased.
Employment in hard coal mining
74 379 persons ↘
The employment reached its historical low. Over a month, it shrunk by 200 employees.
Hard coal price for electricity generation (PSCMI1)
PSCMI 1 – 461 PLN/t ↘
Coal for the power industry is deepening its descent towards pre-2022 crisis levels. These price levels won’t, however, provide profit for the mines, where costs of actual production exceed 900 PLN/t.
Hard coal price for heating (PSCMI 2)
PSCMI 2 – 511 PLN/t ↘
Coal for the heating industry was cheaper by 30 PLN per tonne and 1.40 PLN per gigajoule of energy contained over a month.Â
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, wojciech.przedlacki@instrat.pl