Consumers who have contracted their electricity supply in the regulated market In August, they will pay the second most expensive electricity bill of the year, with a price of more than 55 euros, although it will continue to cost less than half that of a year ago, in the midst of the energy crisis.
According to the simulator data of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) consulted by EFE, with a contracted power of 4.4 kilowatts and a monthly consumption of 250 kilowatt hours (KWh) distributed in the different periods (peak, flat and valley), a typical consumer of the regulated market will pay in August a invoice of 55.5 euros.
This price is higher than the registered one in the previous five monthsand it stands close to 6% above the 52.3 euros that have been registered this summer, both in June and July.
However, it is 52% lower compared to the 115.5 euros that were paid in August 2022, the month with the second most expensive bill in history, and 55% lower than the all-time high March of that same year, when 123 euros/MWh were reached in the midst of the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The cheapest summer since the pandemic
Despite being the second most expensive month of the year, the electricity bill has been this summer –June, July and August– the cheapest since 2020, the year of the pandemic.
Thus, consumers of regulated market They have paid an average of 53.3 euros per month this summer, 48% and 16% less than in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
The last summer that consumers paid less for The invoice of light It was in 2020, the year of the pandemic, when an average of 49 euros was paid in each of the summer months, almost 12% less than this year.
The wholesale market stabilizes
The lower price that regulated consumers are paying for the electricity bill compared to previous years is mainly due to two factors: the drop in wholesale market of electricity and VAT reduction.
In August, the wholesale market marked an average price of 96 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), less than a third -69% less- than what was paid in the same month of the previous year, the most expensive in history and in which the 308.6 euros.
Since the beginning of the year, electricity has been paid on average at 89.5 euros/MWh, notably below the 231.7 euros/MWh of 2022.
This decrease, caused by the drop in demand and the gas pricehas made unnecessary the application of the throttle cap, which has already gone 187 days without being activated and adds 202 days since it came into force, a little over a year ago.
In addition to the drop in the wholesale market, the successive VAT reductions approved by the Government for the electricity bill, which currently stands at 5%, when in June 2021 it was at the usual 21%.
The new PVPC, ready
The current model of the regulated rate or PVPC it will be in force for four more months, before the new formula begins to work on January 1, 2024, after the commitment that the Government acquired with Brussels months ago to approve the cap on gas.
The indexation of the new calculation formula to forward markets will reduce volatilityproviding more stability to consumers’ final bills and maintaining the signs of saving and efficient consumption.
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Specifically, it looks a transitional framework whereby the weight of the term signal will increase progressively between 2024 and 2026, so that for the first year it will represent 25% and will go up until it reaches 55% in 2026, leaving the remaining percentage (45%) at the daily and intraday.
In turn, the price references of the futures markets they will be made up of a basket of term products with different time horizons: 10% will correspond to the monthly product; 36%, quarterly, and 54%, annually.