The Spanish government has proposed a new system to regulate the electricity bill for consumers who benefit from the Voluntary Price for Small Consumers (PVPC). The executive’s idea is that these users do not link their bill to the daily price of electricity in the wholesale market.
Thus, the rate will no longer be indexed to the price that electricity is sold in the wholesale market each day. The weight of this parameter will be less for the benefit of a basket of prices in the medium and long term: monthly, quarterly and an annual average.
The objective is remove some of the volatility to the system and that consumers can anticipate How much of their income will they have to spend to pay for electricity?. In turn, this proposal will allow marketers to continue obtaining benefits from the marginal system.
This government initiative is added to other actions that the government has been implementing since the rise in electricity prices began, with tax cuts and the cap on gas as the most important measures.
High prices throughout Europe
The call Iberian exceptionthe cap on the price of gas that began in June and is active in Spain and Portugal, has allowed moderate increases in the cost of electricity. The two peninsular countries are the ones that have reduced this increase in price the most throughout the continent.
Its success has led the European Commission to promote a similar measure throughout the Union. The situation on the continent is highly unstable, to the point that there is talk of recommendations to moderate consumption. In the coming months, certain restrictions may even be activated.
The problem, therefore, is not only one of prices, but also of access to supplies, mainly gas and oil. Europe is highly dependent on Russia for energy. And as for oil, OPEC already clarifies that there are problems in responding to idle oil production.
Measures that seek to reduce consumption
The European Union approved and published a few weeks ago a plan to reduce electricity consumption by 10% and tax the extra profit of oil companies with 33%. In addition, this whole situation is aggravated by the war between Russia and Ukraine.
In this last case, the European Commission also adapts a measure that had already been proposed in Spain, although with a different format. The reduction in global electricity consumption will be 5% for peak hourswhich is when the price of electricity in wholesale markets reaches its highest cost.
Initially, these recommendations will be just that, recommendations, so they will not lead to energy rationing. If the latter were to happen, domestic consumption would be the last to be limited.
How to save on the electricity bill?
Given this scenario, many citizens are already wondering how to save on electricity and gas bills. In Spain there are two possibilities, join the free market or participate in the regulated market.
The free market was the cheapest option in times of rising prices until the gas cap came into effectbecause from that moment on, the marketers began to include gas compensation in the bill.
At the present time, the best option to contract the gas or electricity service is to go to a comparator in which all the energy offers available. The OffersEnergiaHoy portal shows a flash guide to better understand all the secrets of this market, the website itself to report on developments in the sector, a blog with a large number of texts reporting on solar energy and an expert mailbox.
In the field of consumption itself, the recommendations go through adjust the use of the most energy-demanding appliances to off-peak hourscheck what is the hired potency and check if it can be downloaded, reduce the temperature when using the washing machine, monitor pirate consumption through standby of household appliances and control the temperature of the heating and air conditioning.