CRE issues companion favorable opinion (Deliberation 2026-177) detailing acompte invoicing calendar for France's capacity-mechanism cost-allocation tax

CRE issued a second favorable opinion (Deliberation 2026-177, also dated 3 September 2026) on a companion draft ministerial order (arrêté) implementing CIBS articles L.322-5 to L.322-21, alongside the previously reported draft decree (Deliberation 2026-178). The arrêté sets concrete calendar deadlines: unit tax amount constatation by CRE no later than one month before delivery-period start; contributor identification/de-registration filings due by 30 June of the delivery-period start year; first acompte invoice sent no later than 30 November of the start year (superseding the earlier-reported 30 September date); second acompte invoice sent no later than 1 March of the end year; final tax invoice sent no later than 31 December of the year following delivery-period end; and 30-day payment/refund windows. CRE reiterated two unresolved design gaps also flagged in its decree opinion: the estimated-tax calculation formula for acomptes is not explicitly tied to the CRE-constated unitary tax amount, and the methodology for extrapolating 'PP days' for the inaugural 2026-2027 period (22 PP days under a different draw method vs 15 previously) remains unspecified.

This companion arrêté supplies the operational invoicing calendar that complements the decree's acompte percentage structure, giving RTE, Enedis and all capacity-mechanism contributors concrete compliance deadlines for information exchange, registration, invoicing and payment. The revised first-acompte deadline (30 November rather than 30 September) materially changes near-term cash-flow timing for RTE/Enedis during the transitional 2026-2027 period, while CRE's repeated flagging of calculation-methodology gaps signals a risk of implementation ambiguity that could affect cost predictability for suppliers and consumers before the first invoicing cycle begins.

Reading the two companion deliberations together suggests the government has split the capacity-tax framework into a decree (substantive rules, percentage splits, transitional RTE/Enedis provisions) and an arrêté (procedural calendar and information-exchange mechanics), issued on the same day to CRE for a coordinated opinion. The fact that CRE repeats, almost verbatim, its concerns about the estimated-tax formula and the PP-days extrapolation methodology across both texts indicates these are structural gaps in the underlying legal architecture rather than isolated drafting oversights, and government has not yet closed them despite two rounds of CRE review. Given the first acompte invoice must now be issued by 30 November 2026, there is limited runway for ministries to clarify the calculation methodology before the inaugural transitional billing cycle, raising the likelihood that RTE will need to apply an implicit or provisional formula for the first delivery period, with potential for later dispute or correction.

Code des impositions sur les biens et services (CIBS) articles L.322-5 to L.322-21 and implementing A.322 articles (arrêté) and D.322 articles (décret); Code de l'énergie articles L.316-1 to L.316-13 and R.316-1 to R.316-42; Article 19 of Law n°2025-127 (Loi de finances pour 2025)

First acompte invoice deadline for RTE/Enedis and other contributors (2026-2027 delivery period) · 30 Nov 2026

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