Voluntary price for small consumers

The VPSC is conditioned by the day-ahead market price. However, this year, with the entry into force of the gas price cap mechanism in June, it is decoupled from the wholesale price.

The price of surplus energy from self-consumption is very similar to that of the day-ahead market.

Evolution of the VPSC (general tariff 2.0TD), Day-ahead market and surplus energy from self-consumption

The high prices of the day-ahead market, which, as aforementioned, have an impact on the regulated bill, have led to further exceptional measures being taken to reduce the cost of the bill. January began with the extension of the 10 % reduced VAT rate and the 0.5 % reduced rate of the Special Electricity Tax. Order TED/1484/2021 of December 28 modified the tolls and charges for the year 2022. Charges have been reduced by 31 % on the 2.0TD tariff of June 2021, and tolls, on average, have been reduced by 2 %, although there is an increase of 1.5 % in the off-peak section. After the invasion of Ukraine by the Russians in February 2022, there was a significant rise in gas prices and, therefore, in the price of electricity, followed by the publication in Royal Decree-Law 6/2022 of March 29, containing some initial measures to contain the rise, among which the following stand out:

• A 36.1 % reduction in charges compared to the start of the year and a 56.1 % reduction compared to June 2021.
• Extension of the reduction in electricity tax and VAT until June 30, 2022.

The continued rise in prices led to more drastic measures. On June 15, the adjustment mechanism of Royal Decree-Law 10/2022 came into operation, establishing a temporary adjustment mechanism for production costs to reduce the price of electricity in the wholesale market. However, to ensure that this measure does not pose an economic problem for the power stations that have to incorporate it, compensation was established for the difference between the actual gas price and the reference price, which has to be partially covered by the VPSC. The Royal Decree-Law 11/2022 of June 25 reduces the VAT on electricity from 10 % to 5 % from July 1 and extends the reduction of the electricity tax.

The graph shows how these exceptional measures have affected the cost of the bill. In comparison with the tariffs at the beginning of the year, the reduction compared to the 2.0TD tariff that came into operation in June 2021 was, on average, 17 %. The measures implemented in April led to a reduction of around 4 % on the tariff in force at the beginning of the year, and, in June, with the reduction in VAT. In July, VAT was reduced to 5 %, resulting in a reduction of 25.3 % compared to the initial tariff of June 2021.

In order to calculate the cost of the regulated tariff, if a comparison were made with the old 2.0A tariff, considering a contracted power of 4.6 kW and a consumption of 3,900 kWh/year, with the consumption scenario published on the CNMC website, which is distributed as 45 % on off-peak hours, 26 % on standard hours, and 29 % on peak hours. The cost of the bill for the whole of 2022 would be 1,419 €, 38.7 % higher than what would have been paid for the same consumption in 2021, i.e., 396 € more per year. This is the highest bill in history (the calculation takes into account the reduction measures put in place by the Government).

Of the 1,419 € that this typical customer would have paid for their electricity consumption in 2022, 832 € would correspond to the purchase of energy on the market (59 % of the bill), 270 € (19 %) to the regulated part of tolls and system charges, 182 € (1 %) to the adjustment mechanism of RD-L 10/2022, and the rest, 135 € would correspond to taxes (10 %). Thus, although the cost of energy purchased on the electricity market would have increased by 50 % compared to 2021, total billing would only have increased by 38.7 %.

The high prices of electricity experienced during 2022 meant that the final cost of energy had an ever-increasing impact on the cost of the electricity bill.

Evolution of the cost of the electricity bill