The regulated electricity tariff, called the voluntary price, for small consumers (PVPC), experienced a major customer flight during the energy crisis. In the last two years, nearly two million users have given up on the regulated tariff that the big electricity companies have to offer (Iberdrola, Endesa, Naturgy, Repsol and Totalenergies) through specific marketers.
Large groups are now detecting a slowdown in customer bleeding. According to the National Markets and Competition Commission’s (CNMC) price comparator, the market has stabilized so far this year, at a time when the regulated tariff was cheaper than the tariffs in the free market, and before that regulation came into effect. PVPC reform where the government wants to reduce its volatility.
During the worst of the energy crisis, households experienced the most fluctuations in the regulated electricity tariff. and the direct effect of the historical rise of prices. Until now, the price of electricity in the regulated market has been directly wholesale marketThis is where electricity and “merchants” buy and sell energy for consumption the next day, setting maximums for months.
Almost 2 million less customers
These record prices in the wholesale electricity market were the reason for this. has caused a large flight of customers since the start of the energy crisis. In May 2021 (just before price increases began to be recorded and the Government announced the first shock measures, such as the first VAT reduction on receipt light), the portfolio of customers that signed regulated electricity tariff contracts in May 2021 stood at 10.52. Million users according to CNMC records.
Number of households with electricity tariffs at the end of last year decreased by 8.67 million, According to the latest official data provided so far by CNMC. Big electricity companies this year number fixedWith only a slight loss of customers in the regulated tariff in the first half of the year, according to various sources in the electricity sector who did not specify the total number of regulated market while waiting for CNMC to provide the total figures. Free market rates had 21.4 million customers at the end of last year with almost 70% of all users.
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The government has just approved the tariff reform, which is designed to reduce its volatility. linking price formation not only to the daily electricity market, but also to other relatively stable long-term electricity markets. A reform that will come into effect in 2024 and will increase the weight of the long-term development of the markets in the final price each year.
This small electricity consumers (with less than 10 kilowatts of contracted power, usually households and some SMEs) can choose between contractually regulated electricity tariffs – the amount of which depends on the evolution of the electricity price in the wholesale market – and free market offers. It is freely determined by companies and usually has fixed prices.
Traditionally, PVPC has consistently been the cheapest offering., until the crisis blew up all price records in the market. Currently, due to the Iberian exclusion (first) and the drop in gas prices (now), the regulated electricity tariff is once again cheaper than the vast majority of offers in the free market, according to the CNMC offer comparator. However, marketers narrowed the price gap and there are already free rates on the market with prices very similar to those of PVPC.