“The average price of the daily market adding the cost of the adjustment during these first 15 days of the application of the mechanism is 14% below the price that we would have had in the absence of the measure.” This was one of the data raised yesterday by the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, during her speech at the plenary session of Congress to defend the effectiveness of the mechanism applied in Spain and Portugal to limit the price of gas for electricity generation and thus contain the electricity bill.
“The measure has proven to be effective in reducing market prices, protecting consumers and reducing the profits that have fallen from the sky for electricity companies,” Ribera assured.
In the wholesale market the difference is much more pronounced. “Everything changed as of June 15,” Ribera explained yesterday. If during the first fortnight of the month the prices of the megawatt hour (MWh) in the Iberian market remained in line with that of neighboring countries, the entry into force of the so-called Iberian exception has allowed that in the second fortnight of the month the average be between 45% and 55% of the prices paid by France, Germany or Italy, according to information provided yesterday by Ribera. The appearance before the Chamber of the third vice president lasted almost four hours and ended with an angry Ribera in the face of criticism from the Popular Party, which he accused of not having cared during his last term to design a strategy to combat climate change and of having prevented the development of renewable energies, whose urgency in the implementation calendar was claimed yesterday by the party led by Alberto Nuñez Feijóo.
Another of the data that the minister exhibited with pride was the one that quantifies the effect of the measure on the profits that fell from the sky of the electric companies. “The Iberian exception has allowed only the electricity produced with gas to be paid at the gas price and not the rest of the technologies, which has allowed the electricity companies to stop earning 250 million euros,” she assured.
Ribera is confident that the benefits of the measure will become visible in the coming months, since, as he pointed out, the futures markets are pointing to a price of 149 euros for the MWh in Spain, compared to 343 in Germany or 723 euros that they mark for France, due to a situation that he described as “appalling”, with 24 of the 56 nuclear reactors in that country closed.
In this price environment and with a reactivated market, “the Government is already in a position to modify the regulated electricity rate,” he assured, referring to the famous PVPC, linked to the volatility of the daily market, which he acknowledged has become “a real trap for consumers”.
The minister focused much of her speech on calling for coordinated action by Europe to stop the escalation in electricity prices. And she, in reference to the gas reserves in Spain for next winter, she assured that they are already at 80% and showed off the diversification of suppliers, although she was not as forceful as on other occasions about the security of the supply. “Apparently the gas supply is guaranteed,” she said.
