The spiral of increase in electricity prices continues to worsen. August was the most expensive electricity month in history, and this Wednesday, the second highest daily price ever reached, and the highest daily price since the famous Iberian exception was implemented, does not prevent energy from continuing to rise, but provides the increase. Much less than what consumers would have been exposed to if these measures were not taken.
this wholesale electricity market Energy utilities, marketers and traders buy and sell energy – reaching an average of 154.9 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) last month, according to records from market operator OMIE. However, to calculate the average electricity price for more than 10 million customers with a regulated tariff, an additional €152.9 per MWh should be added, corresponding to the compensation paid to electricity companies with gas plants as a result of the application of the cap. at the price of gas designed by Iberian exception.
The last price, which makes August the most expensive month in history, is 307.8 MWh. If the cap was not applied to the gas of the special mechanism activated in the cap Spain Y Portugal last June, the final price of the electricity market would have been 376.7 euros per MWh, almost 19% more expensive. this Iberian exception dampening the rise and allowing the Spanish market to keep prices far from the records of other major European countries, but prices in Spain continue to rise.
Return to price per hour
this natural gas price crisisl, international markets are at record levels and further increases are expected due to the threat from Russia. Cut the faucet of Europeand compensation to thermal power plants implied by the Iberian exception, causing the price difference between different times of the day to worsen, making electricity more expensive at night than during the day.
A year after the government and the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC) revolutionized the electricity bill by dividing the price of electricity by time of consumption, many consumers had already adopted the habits of consuming electricity at night to get cheaper. prices (remember the joke about ironing at dawn and putting it in the washing machine), supposedly Iberian exception and record gas prices in international markets back to the situation.
Why? Why? Because when solar power plants do not produce and gas power plants are used more to meet demand, given the current situation of low production hydroelectric power due to drought and wind power due to lack of wind. During the month of August, the price of night watches was half. 50% higher than in the evening
Specifically, the final price of electricity (market price plus the cost of setting up gas plants) averaged 362 Euros per MWh at dawn, between midnight and eight in the morning. However, between six in the afternoon and six in the afternoon, the largest period of solar radiation, when the contribution of photovoltaic plants is greater, the average price remained at 242 euros per MWh. ASE Group energy consultant.
“The cost of compensation adjustment has a much greater impact during times when combined gas cycles produce more, which often coincide with moments of low or no solar radiation and little wind generation,” says Grupo ASE. Compensation cost to utilities at night skyrockets due to larger operations gas plants. “The amount of adjustment is linked to the production volume of combined cycles and the daily gas price (Mibgas), both of which are increasing,” the consultant emphasizes.
In fact, compensation to gas plants to cover the real costs of their production – now paid by regulated tariff users. PVPC and free market customers, when rates are reviewed by companies, it reached €200.5 per MWh at night, nearly double the €112 per MWh in the evening.