MADRID, 4 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The average price of the wholesale electricity market, the so-called 'pool', will plummet this Friday to 0.44 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), marking a new annual minimum and registering the fifth cheapest in history, returning to also see hours in negative prices, for the second time in history.
Specifically, the maximum price of the day will be 3.25 euros/MWh, between 07:00 and 08:00, but throughout the day up to a total of 20 hours will be added around zero euros or negative. , according to provisional data from the Iberian Energy Market Operator (OMIE) collected by Europa Press.
As happened last Monday, the pool will be -0.01 euro/MWh between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. Portugal will also be added to the negative prices in Spain on this occasion.
The 0.44 euros/MWh for this Friday thus shatters the 0.54 euros/MWh that was recorded on average for last March 10, and which was until now the cheapest day in 2024 of the 'pool'. You would have to go back to 2013 to find such low levels for one day in its average price.
The significant presence of renewable generation at the beginning of April, especially with a notable participation of hydraulics with the water dammed from the significant rains at Easter, places the average in the first five days of the month at 5.2 euros/MWh .
In March, the lowest average pool price in history for a month was already seen, with 20 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), half that of the average price recorded in February and 77.5% less than in March. 2023, when it stood at 89.6 euros/MWh.
However, this price is not then transferred to the receipt exactly at those zero euros, since there are fixed costs for the electricity consumer, due to tolls, charges and system adjustments.
Furthermore, in February, after registering an average lower than 45 euros/MWh, the ceiling set in the Royal Decree of urgent measures, electricity temporarily recovered its Value Added Tax (VAT) of 21% since March.
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 free 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.
