Unstoppable ascent. The average price of light in the wholesale market will rise this Monday to an unprecedented high: 442.54 euros per megawatt per hour (MWh), according to data from market operator OMIE. This evolution was predictable following this Sunday, a public holiday, reached the second highest average price in history (379.03 euros).
Between 8 and 9, both in the morning and at night, the most expensive band will be registered, of 500 euroswhile the cheapest, 379.02, will be between 11 and 12 at night.
Following this new rise, which is taking place in the midst of Russia’s military offensive on Ukraine, the price of electricity will almost 10 times the amount recorded a year ago, when it was paid at 45.07 euros / MWh, and is approximately 90% higher than when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. This evolution has generated the transfer of regulated tariff users to the free market to try to cheapen the receipt. The highest average price in the wholesale market was on December 23 last year, when it reached the current record of 383.67 euros / MWh. But Monday’s price will exceed that figure.
gas scalding
One of the components that contributes most to this takeoff is the climbing that has recorded the gas in international markets and that usually marks the price in the wholesale market as it is the last source that covers the demand. Following the conflict in Ukraine, this fuel has experienced an unstoppable escalation. Italy has joined Spain’s requests to decouple the evolution of the price of gas from electricity.
In the face of this rising cost, the government has decided extend measures that try to curb the repercussion of the rise in the wholesale market in the receipt paid by users.
The 60% discount on the electric social voucher for vulnerable groups and 70% for severely vulnerable groups is extended until June 30, as well as the tax rebates on the receipt (10% electric VAT, suspension of the 7% tax on the value of production and the 0.5% excise tax on electricity). It will also extend other current measures to date, such as the temporary reduction of the extraordinary profit obtained by non-emitting gas generation plants, which ended on 31 March.
