Some 74 euros less than those who would have been paid per MWh if the gas price limit had not been applied
July 2 () –
The average price of electricity for regulated rate customers linked to the wholesale market will drop 9% this Sunday compared to this Saturday, to 207.77 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).
This price for PVPC customers is the result of adding the average price of the auction in the wholesale market to the compensation that the demand will pay to the combined cycle plants for the application of the ‘Iberian exception’ to cap the price of gas for electricity generation.
In the auction, the average price of electricity in the wholesale market –the so-called ‘pool’– will be 133.50 euros/MWh this Sunday, which is around nine euros less than the price for this Saturday (142.42 euros/MWh), according to data from the Iberian Energy Market Operator (OMIE) collected by Europa Press.
The maximum price of electricity for this July 3 will be registered between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., with 193.06 euros/MWh, while the minimum for the day, of 91.20 euros/MWh, will be between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.
To this price of the ‘pool’ is added the compensation of 74.27 euros/MWh to the gas companies (a figure that is still provisional and that usually varies compared to the definitive one and affects the percentage variations of the price), compared to 86, 01 euros/MWh (still provisional) registered this Saturday. This compensation must be paid by the consumers who benefit from the measure, the consumers of the regulated rate (PVPC) or those who, despite being in the free market, have an indexed rate.
26.31% LESS THAN WITHOUT APPLYING THE MEASURE
In the absence of the ‘Iberian exception’ mechanism to limit the price of gas for the generation of electricity, the price of electricity in Spain would have been an average of 281.95 euros/MWh, which is about 74 euros/MWh more than with the compensation for clients of the regulated rate, who will thus pay around 23.79% less on average.
Compared to a year ago, the price of electricity for customers of the regulated rate for this Saturday is 120% more.
The Iberian mechanism, which entered into force on June 15, limits the price of gas for electricity generation to an average of 48.8 euros per MWh over a period of twelve months, thus covering the coming winter, a period in which energy prices are more expensive.
Specifically, the ‘Iberian exception’ sets a path for natural gas for electricity generation at a price of 40 euros/MWh in the initial six months, and subsequently, a monthly increase of five euros/MWh until the end of the measure .
A REDUCTION OF 14% IN YOUR FIRST 15 DAYS
The limitation of the price of gas to generate electricity has reduced in its first 15 days of application (between June 15 and 30) the price of electricity for regulated rate customers linked to the wholesale market by 13.82% if compares with the records that the ‘pool’ would have had if the mechanism had not been applied.
Between June 15 and 30, the average price for regulated rate customers, resulting from adding the price of the ‘pool’ and the daily compensation for the plants that generate with gas, is 237.77 euros per megawatt hour (MWh ), while if the measure had not been applied, the average would have been 275.89 euros/MWh.
In addition, the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, assured this Thursday in Congress that in the first 15 days of operation of the Iberian mechanism the ‘lost profits’ have been reduced by around 250 million euros from the sky’ (or ‘windfall profits’) of the electric companies.
The Government limited in its calculations to 15.3% the reduction in the receipt to the average electricity consumer covered by the PVPC regulated rate during the 12 months of application of the approved cap on the generation of electricity from natural gas, according to evidence in the impact report that accompanies the decree law and to which Europa Press has had access.
For the industrial consumer, totally exposed to the ‘spot’ price, the Government estimated a reduction of between 18% and 20%, with the first month of the mechanism oscillating between 15% and 17%, and between 13% and 15% at last.
The prices of the ‘pool’ have a direct impact on the regulated rate –the so-called PVPC–, to which almost 11 million households in the country are covered, and serve as a reference for the other 17 million who have contracted their supply in the free market.
In fact, the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) has verified that in 2021, in the framework of the upward spiral of energy, around 1.25 million people switched from the PVPC to a rate in the free market at a fixed price.
The decree law to expand the measures to alleviate the economic effects of the war in Ukraine, approved last Saturday by the Government, includes a reduction in VAT on electricity from 10% to 5%. A year ago, a reduction of this tax from 21% to 10% was approved and now it is reduced to 5%.
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