The price of electricity soars this Tuesday to 365.33 euros/MWh, its maximum since the Iberian exception

Aug. 22 () –

The average price of electricity for regulated rate customers linked to the wholesale market will soar 34.77% this Tuesday compared to this Monday, up to 365.33 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), according to provisional data from the Operator of the Iberian Energy Market (OMIE) collected by Europa Press.

This price is the result of adding the average 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 the generation of electricity.

In this way, the highest level will be recorded since the so-called ‘Iberian exception’ came into force in mid-June and the level of 360 euros/MWh is exceeded for the first time, including compensation to gas companies.

In the auction, the average price of electricity in the wholesale market – the so-called ‘pool’ – has been located for this Monday at 182.93 euros/MWh. The maximum price will be registered between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., with 250 euros/MWh, while the minimum for the day, of 148.60 euros/MWh, will be between 04:00 a.m. and 05:00 a.m.

To this price of the ‘pool’ is added the compensation of 182.40 euros/MWh to the gas companies that has to be paid by the consumers who benefit from the measure, the consumers of the regulated tariff (PVPC) or those who, despite being in the free market, they have an indexed rate.

GAS, AT NEW HIGHS

This increase in the cost of electricity occurs with some levels of the TTF gas price in the Netherlands, a reference in the European market, at maximum levels, with the futures for September trading this Monday at new maximum levels, with almost 290 euros/MWh after registering a increase of more than 18%.

For its part, in the Iberian natural gas market (Mibgas) its price was exchanged this Monday at 189.56 euros/MWh.

ALMOST 23.4% LESS THAN WITHOUT APPLYING THE MEASURE

In the absence of the ‘Iberian exception’ mechanism to cap the price of gas for electricity generation, the price of electricity in Spain would be on average around 476.76 euros/MWh, which is around 111.43 euros/MWh more than with the compensation for clients of the regulated rate, who will thus pay 23.37% less on average.

The ‘Iberian mechanism’, which came 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 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 .

The third vice-president of the Government and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, estimated last week that the ‘Iberian exception’ has meant a saving of 1,383 million euros for Spanish consumers in its two months of validity.

Ribera indicated that this figure represents a saving of 22 million euros per day for Spanish society since the entry into force of the mechanism.