The electricity market will receive Teresa Ribera with a new annual maximum just on the day that the Minister of Ecological Transition intends to detail in Congress a package of measures to lower the electricity bill from homes and companies.
The cost of a megawatt hour (MWh) will reach 75.93 euros today, adding an annual maximum and linking a streak of 11 consecutive days above 70 euros. This is an unusual record for a September that has been unregistered since 2008.
Ribera plans to announce during his parliamentary appearance a series of measures to help lower the price of the electricity bill. Sources close to the minister indicate that the speech and its announcements will be mostly linked to the reformulation of the social bonus to alleviate energy poverty.
The PP put more pressure on the minister yesterday after raising the withdrawal of the tax on electricity generation of 7% approved by the government itself ‘popular’ in 2012 to alleviate the mismatch between income and regulated costs of the electricity system.
The electricity sector links the strong increase in the wholesale electricity market to the increase in the price of CO2 rights and the international price of coal and natural gas. These two fuels have increased their market share over the last few months due to the decrease in wind and hydraulic energy typical of this time of year.
The electricity bill of an average user has risen 85.7% in just 15 years, rising more than 37 euros, according to data from Facua-Consumidores en Acción.
Specifically, with the tariffs in force as of August of this year, the monthly bill represents 80.73 euros, compared to 43.47 euros in 2003.
Facua points out that an analysis carried out by this organisation on tens of thousands of invoices for occupied dwellings indicates that in Spain the average user consumes 366 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month and has a contracted power of 4.4 kW.