The capacity tariff explained.

Your digital meter records your average power every fifteen minutes. The highest of those quarter-hour values in a month is your monthly peak.

The capacity tariff starts from the average of your monthly peaks over the past twelve months, multiplied by a fixed amount per kilowatt.

There is a minimum. If your average peak falls below it, that minimum is used anyway. In 2026 that minimum is 2.5 kW.

Suppose that one evening you cook on an electric hob, run the tumble dryer and charge your car all at once. Together that easily draws seven to eight kilowatts. That single quarter of an hour sets your monthly peak, even if it happens only once.

Spread those same appliances across the evening and the same electricity costs you less.

Spread out your heavy appliances. Don't run the washing machine and the tumble dryer at the same time as the cooking.

Charge your car more slowly. A charge point running at limited power across a whole night barely raises your peak at all.

A home battery absorbs peaks: when several appliances come on together, the battery supplies the difference instead of the grid.

Controls that spread your usage automatically do this without you having to think about it.

If you have a digital meter you can look up your quarter-hour peaks via mijn.fluvius.be. That is the most honest way to see whether it is worth changing anything in your case.