Voluntary price for small consumers

The high wholesale prices recorded since mid-2021 were passed on to the VPSC, internalising its volatility. To try to reduce it, the VPSC has been modified by introducing a price signal to forward products, setting this signal as a basket of products referenced to the market managed by OMIP (annual, quarterly, and monthly markets).

Thus, the cost of energy now includes a new adjustment term, which takes into account the prices of forward futures. To simplify, this term amounts to the difference between the price of the basket and the arithmetic average hourly price of the day-ahead market. Therefore, in low-price months like March and April, this term increased the bill by about €6, while in November and December, high-price months, this term reduced the bill by just over €1.

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

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

The mechanism that capped the price of gas was no longer applied starting on January 2024. The electricity tax increased from 0.5% (in effect since 16 September 2021) to 2.5%, rising to 3.8% in April, while it returned to its original value in July: 5.11%. VAT increased from 5% (in effect since July 2022) to 10% in January. In March, given that the day-ahead market price in February was below €45/MWh, it increased to 21%, and this value remained valid until June. VAT reverted to 10% from July onward, since the price in the previous months was consistently higher than 45 €/MWh. Tolls changed in 2024, but the charges remained the same as in 2023. Tolls decreased compared to 2023, except for the peak power toll, which remained almost the same, and the peak energy toll, which increased by almost 14%. The reductions are more significant during off-peak periods.

To monitor the cost of the regulated tariff, a comparison will be made 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 has a distribution of 45% on off-peak hours, 26% on standard hours and 29% on peak hours. The total cost of this bill for the entire year 2024 is €774, very similar to that of 2023.

It is the cheapest if prices are considered at current values and, considering the real cost of each year (without updating to 2024 prices), it is the fourth cheapest, after 2010, 2020 and 2016.

Of the €774 that this typical customer would pay for their electricity consumption in 2024, €400 corresponds to the cost of energy (52% of the bill), with 4% of this corresponding to the new futures basket term; €257 (33%) corresponding to the regulated part of system charges and tariffs, and the remaining €117 (15%) corresponding to taxes.

It can be observed that in the last two months, due to the sharp increase in wholesale prices, the cost of the bill was almost identical to that of 2023.

Evolution of the cost of the electricity bill