Average electricity price for customers with regulated rates tied to the wholesale market shows a notable drop for this Sunday. The price is expected to be 39.58 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), representing a 22.57% decrease from the prior day, Saturday. This marks the lowest price level observed over the last thirty days and even reaches zero euros for a nine-hour stretch, illustrating how market dynamics and regulatory structures can create unusual price intervals while still delivering relief to consumers in peak window periods.
On a broader note, this Sunday’s Special Daily electricity price is projected to be the lowest in May and the most favorable since mid-April. This reflects a temporary alignment of supply factors, demand patterns, and market interventions that combine to push wholesale costs downward during typical weekend consumption spikes. For households and small businesses, these trends can translate into meaningful savings when the grid is generating more power than is being consumed, or when prices are tempered by policy measures designed to stabilize the market during transitional seasons.
Breaking down by time intervals, the Iberian price mechanism indicates a minimum of zero euros per MWh between 09:00 and 18:00, with a peak around the late evening hours, reaching up to 98.96 euros per MWh between 22:00 and 23:00. This kind of hourly volatility is common in wholesale markets, where supply must constantly adapt to plant outages, wind and solar generation variability, and demand shifts from industrial users to residential customers as daily routines evolve. Consumers whose tariffs follow the pool price should anticipate how these hourly swings may influence their daily costs, even as compensation schemes under the regulated tariff maintain a degree of predictability for a portion of consumption.
As of this May, the average price of electricity in the market has hovered around 79.75 euros per MWh, compared with approximately 192.50 euros per MWh at the same point last year. The year-over-year change highlights how policy instruments, regional cooperation, and global energy market trends collectively shape consumer bills. It also underscores the importance for households to monitor daily price signals and understand whether their tariff structure is exposed to wholesale fluctuations or protected by caps and safeguards, ensuring informed consumption decisions without sacrificing comfort and reliability.
The so-called Iberian exception has been extended through December 31, extending a cooperative arrangement between Spain and Portugal in concert with the European Commission. This seven-month extension provides continued relief while researchers, regulators, and industry participants assess its longer-term impact. If the framework is renewed again, the extension could be longer, reinforcing the message that regional coordination remains a central feature of energy policy in the Iberian Peninsula. The extension is not merely a prolongation; it accompanies adjustments intended to better reflect evolving market conditions, including how the price reference is set and how it interacts with wholesale gas markets.
In the updated agreement, the price reference for gas, which had previously averaged 48.8 euros per MWh over six months before rising by five euros per MWh each month, now sees a smaller monthly increase of 1.1 euro per MWh compared with April. This adjustment places the current reference in the vicinity of 65 euros per MWh, with the monthly cap for May established at 57.2 euros per MWh. These changes aim to balance the need for market stability with the realities of supply costs, ensuring a more gradual response to shifting gas prices while still offering a degree of protection to consumers who may be sensitive to energy bills during periods of price volatility.
At present, the mechanism tied to these adjustments has not significantly altered the core processes of marginal matching in wholesale markets since late February. The underlying factor is that natural gas prices have so far remained below the thresholds that would trigger the intended adjustments. Nevertheless, the possibility of a further extension exists, should market conditions warrant it. Such a continuation would help sustain a reasonable price level that is less reactive to sudden swings in natural gas costs, thereby shielding consumers from abrupt bill shocks without undermining the incentives for producers to maintain reliable and diverse energy generation sources.