“It shows nothing, in the medium and long termThere will be reform in the electricity market minimally effective“It puts at risk the future of strategic European industry and its indispensable generation of wealth and quality employment,” he said. Spanish Chemical Industry Business Federation (Feique), Teresa Rasero. The chemical industry is a big consumer energyTherefore, high prices hinder their activities. Despite their hopes for reforming the electricity market under the original Spanish proposal, they regret the text Europe has moved forward with. It will never change real situation. “It doesn’t solve your problem high pricesnor will it fix it,” added the general manager, Juan Antonio Labat.
HE much of the reform focuses on promoting what is called contracts for differencesthese are nothing else public term contracts Between the state and the generator will complement the market price When the market price is low and the market price rises above a certain limit, ask the manufacturer to return some amount. This way, if prices are too high, as has been the case in recent years, governments get the revenue they can later earn. redistribute. According to this feique Such measures are “aid” that serves countries with “budget availability”; France and Germanybut not to Spain. “They can maintain their competitiveness with state aid, but we do not have this opportunity,” complains Juan Antonio Labat.
Once you don’t get an “a” royal reformunderstand HE gas And CO2 The chemical industry wants a proposal from the next Government to stop setting the price of electricity. “industrial rate” to compete Franco-German axis, where there are certain rates for the industry. In the case of France, Arenh rate megawatt hour is determined as 42 euros, while in Germany 60 euro fixed fee. “The government can do this at the national level. We have too much renewable energy with a specific charging regime (RECORE) and too much bottom-marginal to make it an industrial price. It’s actually working on that.” Labat.
In the midst of the energy crisis, at the end of 2021 the Government approved this measure known as “sub-marginal auctions”. will force large electricity companies give up part of it cheaper production (Like those of inframarginal power plants) nuclear and hydraulic) to independent marketers and major industry so they can control their costs. Major electric companies argued that all their energy had already been sold and had never been put online.
Problem high electricity prices This situation has begun to occur, but it also occasionally occurs in some facilities due to high gas prices. But in this case intervention capacity is very limited because its price depends on: geostrategic factors. “There are factories that are closing, another thing is that they decide that these closures are final. We do not see a lot of processes, but when you are a consumer of gas you are competing with the price of the Henry center in the United States, which is cheaper than the prices in Europe,” explains Labat.
The sector is waiting for the end of the year with exports 6.8% decrease in revenue Although up to 83.799 million Euros production increased by 0.8%mainly for the following reasons basic chemistry (used in processes such as chlorine) busier in electricity and gas consumption. An improvement in basic chemistry has been seen since the second quarter of 2022. sharp productive decline Although it has reversed its trend since April, it will end 2023 with a decline of almost 12 points due to high energy costs and weak demand.
However, Feique said that the development of the Spanish chemical industry “obvious weakness“which shows that European industry as a wholeThe economy is “already experiencing productive declines, starting with a slowdown in the second half of last year and continuing this year.”