MADRID, 23 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The price of the wholesale electricity market, the so-called ‘pool’, will remain at zero euros per megawatt hour (MWh) this Sunday for 16 hours until six in the afternoon, although it will increase to 35 euros/MWh between 10 and 11 p.m. , according to provisional data from the Iberian Energy Market Operator (OMIE).
In this way, that Sunday the average price will be 6.69 euros/MWh, which in recent days has been varying significantly, going from this Saturday’s average of 2.01 euros/MWh or the average price of 56.94 euros/MWh on Wednesday.
This price of zero euros/MWh will not be transferred to the bill exactly, since there are fixed costs for the electricity consumer for tolls, charges and system adjustments.
So far in March, the pool average stands at around 24 euros/MWh, after having spent eight days below the level of 10 euros/MWh at the beginning of the month.
In February, the average daily price of the wholesale market stood at 40 euros/MWh, with a decrease of 46% compared to January and 69.7% compared to a year ago -132.06 euros/MWh-, due to a high participation of renewables, especially due to storms.
This fact caused electricity to temporarily recover its Value Added Tax (VAT) of 21% since March, after the wholesale market price registered a lower average in February than 45 euros/MWh, the ceiling set in the Real. Decree of urgent measures.
The last Council of Ministers last year approved that the VAT on electricity would go from 5% to 10% and that this rate would be maintained until the end of 2024, provided that the condition that MWh prices in the wholesale market were met. remain high, above those 45 euros/MWh.
Specifically, the VAT would become 21% whenever the wholesale price was below that level in the calendar month prior to the last day of billing. That is, all invoices that include consumption for at least one day in March will have VAT of 21%. Only households with the social bonus are exempt from this increase, since their VAT will remain at 10% throughout 2024.
In any case, the ‘pool’ does not exactly represent the final amount in the price of electricity for a consumer covered by the regulated tariff, since with the entry in 2024 a new method of calculating the PVPC was adopted, which incorporates a basket of medium and long-term prices to avoid strong fluctuations, without losing short-term price references that encourage savings and efficient consumption.
Specifically, the proportion of linkage with the ‘pool’ price will be progressively reduced, to incorporate the references of the futures markets, so that these represent 25% in 2024, 40% in 2025 and 55% at from 2026.
