Check how the new regulated electricity tariff approved in Spain today could affect you

Image of electric plug lying on €100 notes.

Image of electric plug lying on €100 notes. Credit: Maryia_K/Shutterstock.com

Spain’s acting Government in the Council of Ministers approved the reform of the regulated electricity tariff this Tuesday, June 13.

The decision was made following a proposal from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), which published a statement after the reform was passed.

As announced by Teresa Ribera, the Minister for the Ecological Transition, today’s change will come into force ‘at the beginning of 2024’.

This decree will modify the way by which the calculation methodology of the so-called Small Consumer Sale Price (PVPC) is carried out.

The move was designed to: ‘reduce volatility, providing more stability to consumers’ final bills while maintaining signs of saving and efficient consumption’. It is expected to have an impact on economic savings for consumers, initially estimated at around €297.1 million per year.

‘The new calculation formula, which will come into force as of January 1, 2024, will partially incorporate long-term price signals, which will boost electricity contracting in these markets, as well as reduce volatility in the bills of Spanish households and micro-enterprises, especially pronounced since the war in Ukraine began’, said the statement from MITECO.

It continued: ‘With this reform of the PVPC, a partial deindexation of the spot markets is carried out, by incorporating references from the futures markets that will provide more stability to the final bills of consumers’.

‘This incorporation of futures will be gradual: they will represent 25 per cent in 2024, 40 per cent in 2025 and 55 per cent in 2026’, it explained.

‘The futures market price references, in turn, will be made up of a basket of forward products with different time horizons: 10 per cent would correspond to the monthly product, 36 per cent to the quarterly product and 54 per cent to the annual product’, it continued.

The statement added: ‘The new methodology will preserve the hourly price signal by maintaining the differential resulting from the daily market matching, which will help promote efficient consumption patterns to take advantage of the cheapest hours.

‘Finally, in compliance with Directive 2019/944 on the internal electricity market, as of January 1, 2024, households and micro-SMEs will be able to benefit from the regulated tariff – which will have to certify their condition through a responsible declaration – with a contracted power less than or equal to 10 kW’, it concluded.

As a result of today’s action, close to nine million households covered by the existing PVPC rate will be affected. That is equivalent to approximately 34 per cent of all domestic homes in the country.

Households and micro-enterprises will be able to take advantage of this new regulated rate, for which a period of time will be determined: ‘for SMEs and organizations to move to the free market’, explained Selectra.

According to sources from the Ministry for Ecological Transition, large companies that, at the beginning of 2024, have not switched to the free market, will continue to have their supply, but with a 20 per cent surcharge.

Consumers can still decide which tariff they would like to sign up to. There is the regulated tariff or the free market rate with each one having advantages and disadvantages.

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Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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