The new system will remain in force until the regional and municipal elections of May 28, 2023: “in no case shall it apply after May 31, 2023”.

The official state gazette (BOE) published this Saturday royal decree law that the government approved in an extraordinary council of ministers on Friday to cap the price of gas in the wholesale market, although the mechanism will not come into force until received. The definitive formal approval of the European Commission, a process that will depend on its internal time frame and which can take days or weeks, and after 12 days of adaptation which is left to the operators.

This was pointed out by sources in the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, after it was approved by the Executive 12 month price range The gas is supplied in the wholesale market to reduce the impact of the high cost of this raw material on the electricity bill.

Therefore, the new pricing system will not come into force until the end of May and will be in force only until the regional and municipal elections scheduled for May 28, 2023, as the royal decree collected by Cervimedia, in the literal words of the law, establishes that “in No matter will be applicable after 31st May, 2023”.

Government fixed the price of gas Initially at 40 euros for six months And then increase it by five Euros per MWh per month, ending at 70 Euros per MWh and thus get an average price of 48.80 Euros over the whole time. 12 months of validity of the remedySo that, according to the executive’s original calculations, the measure would allow the bill to be reduced by about 30%, an amount which Teresa Ribeira’s Ministry of Energy no longer insists on, as compensation will not be calculated there. Contribute to the implementation of the discount.

The resulting price of electricity after the implementation of the mechanism will depend mainly on the price of gas on the Iberian gas market (MibGas) and the price of CO2. Taking into account 96 euros per megawatt hour for gas and 80 euros per megawatt hour for CO2, the mechanism would leave the average value pool 1. less than30 Euro per MWh during 12 months compared to more than 210 Euro Megawatt hours that will be recorded in your absence.

enlist in the army

The measure, once published in the BOE, will take effect from this Sunday, but its “full effectiveness” is subject to formal approval by the European Commission, which could take days or weeks. In fact, After the support of the community authorities, the Minister of Ecological Transition must publish a new order that “set the date of commencement of the adjustment mechanism regulated in this royal decree-law as the date established by the said authority, which in no case may be earlier than the day following its publication.”

In this regard, Ecological Transition sources said that the mechanism considers an adaptation period of 12 days for operators, counting from the day after publication in the BOE. In addition, approval by Brussels is required, after which a ministerial order with the entry into force of its communication and mechanism will be published in the BOE. That way, if after 12 days of the adaptation period, Brussels had already approved the measure, it would already be in force, whereas, if the green light from the commission comes later, the mechanism will be in operation as soon as it is done. will come. ,

Once it goes into effect, the government believes the measure will mean an “immediate improvement” for consumers who have contracts with variable prices, such as the PVPC rate, 37% domestic consumer and 70% industrial, whereas those who have contracts with fixed prices will receive it if they renew or change during the year the mechanism is in force. That way, only consumers with long-term fixed-price contracts that expire after the year in which the measure is invoked will not be affected by the measure.

Approval of the measure comes after Spain and Portugal received a memorandum of understanding from the European Commission on Monday to be able to implement this cap on gas prices. With this permission, known as except IbrikaBrussels authorizes these two countries to limit the price of gas to isolate its effect on the price of electricity, as Spain and Portugal have much less exposure to Russian gas than the rest of the European Union, and Therefore, both countries consider it unfair that this raw material is what determines the price of electricity.

export

On the other hand, ministerial sources told that it is It was expected that this new mechanism would increase exports. Electricity from Spain, originally to France, so that the rest is purely export.

These sources indicated that it is difficult to quantitatively estimate the impact on exports, but they pointed out that, so far this year, the balance between Spain and France in terms of electricity is balanced, with more exports than Spain compared to other years. With, but without being a 100% exporter, -since there are days and hours in which Spain imports France-, with the new mechanism Spain will likely become a net exporter with respect to France.

In any case, from the ecological transition he highlighted that the European market would remain unique as the electricity matching would remain unique and in any case the mechanism would not necessarily require that Spain subsidize electricity exported to France or Morocco. Give.

Lastly, with regard to who will be compensated for the price of gas, ministerial sources said that it will not be the consumers but the marketers who buy the energy in the wholesale market.