The European Commission claims that the Iberian exception model that allows Spain and Portugal to put a ceiling on the price of gas used to generate electricity spread to the rest of the European Union with a cap of between 100 and 120 euros per Mwh, a softer limit than the average of 60 euros for the Spanish-Portuguese framework; a step with which he estimates a net benefit of 13,000 million euros for the block.
“Adding this mechanism above the inframarginal cap would thus produce a net benefit of approximately 13,000 million euros on the 70,000 million of the inframarginal ceiling”points out the working document that the Community Executive has circulated between the capitals in the framework of the negotiations to intervene in the energy market.
At this point, Brussels adds, the resulting net benefits will have a “beneficial effect on inflation”, although it warns that one of the risks associated with the measure is the foreseeable increase in gas consumptionagainst the target to seek alternative sources after the break with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. In this context, community services are committed to setting a maximum price “high enough so that gas energy does not become more attractive” than producing electricity from other technologies that set between 100 and 120 euros per megawatt per hour , almost twice the average limit of 60 euros that Brussels allowed Lisbon and Madrid.
Upon her arrival at the meeting of EU Energy Ministers in Luxembourg, the third vice-president and head of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, said that Spain will support the countries that defend the extension of the Iberian mechanism because she understands that they feel “unprotected” against rising prices.
