Despite an average electricity price decrease of 7.62% compared to Saturday, Sunday will be the most expensive Sunday in history. Prices will reach €209.63 per megawatt hour (MWh). This means last Sunday’s record has been broken.
Compared to the same day a year ago, the increase is 394%. This means Spaniards are paying almost four times as much for electricity. The highest price, €270/MWh, is expected between 20.00 and 21.00 on Sunday; while the lowest electricity price will be between 16.00 and 17.00, at €183.84/MWh.
Record after record
The electricity price set the second highest record in history on Friday. The absolute record was already reached more than a week ago. Then the price surpassed €288.53 on 7th October.
Electricity bills shot up in October and if prices stay the same for the whole month, the average user would pay €135.57. This is 109.8% more than the €64.61 of a year ago, according to an analysis of the PVPC. The PVPC is the electricity price indexed to the wholesale market that applies to 10.7 million consumers, about 40% of all households, carried out by consumer organisation Facua. The Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Miteco) launched a public consultation on the modification of this PVPC.
Measures taken by the Spanish government not sufficient
Facua also warns the government’s new measures are ‘absolutely insufficient’ . It believes they ‘only slightly slow down the huge increase in rates’.
The measures include the reduction of VAT to 10%, the suspension of the 7% tax on electricity production, and the reduction of the electricity tax to 0.5%. There’s also the expected contribution of €2.6billion from the electricity companies from the so-called windfalls.
Related article: Hamlet uses party budget for residents’ electricity bills
This is what Europe thinks
The European Commission is considering Spain’s proposed measures to deal with the rise in electricity prices. These include the possibility of buying gas jointly to create strategic reserves. At the same time it urges member states to ‘give priority to those actions already included in existing legislation that can have an ‘immediate’ effect’’.
