The four main groups of the European Parliament (popular, socialist, liberal and green) reached this Thursday an agreement on the reform of the electricity market. By virtue of this pact, which is expected to be approved by the parliamentary commission within two weeks, states are required to prohibit cutting off power to the most vulnerable consumers.
The European Parliament is advancing on the electricity market proposal and they hope that by the plenary session in September it will be able to vote on its position and sit down with the member states to negotiate. It will not be easy, since the latter failed in their attempt in mid-June.
The agreement provided for by the parliamentary groups protects the protection of the most vulnerable consumers, in which the states must prohibit power outages. In the event of a price crisis –like the one that occurred last summer–, the Commission will have the obligation to declare it and take the appropriate measures. If activated, a cap will be activated –similar to the existing one– of 180 euros per megawatt-hour.
The MEP in charge of the report, the Spanish socialist Nicolás González Casares, had presented a limit to the benefits fallen from heaven of those known as inframarginal technologies, the cheapest, such as renewables or nuclear. The vast majority of the groups did not like the idea –especially the popular ones, they feared that it would “disincentivize investment”–, and finally this is not part of the pact. In any case, they call on the Commission to “by June 2024 at the latest” study the introduction of a mechanism that can somehow limit income temporarily.
Finally, as Spain has always defended, more importance will be given to storage, and a proposal for storage of electricity generated with non-fossil energy will be requested from the European Commission no later than 2025.
