The crisis caused by the increase in the price of electricity will last for at least one more week.

This is reflected in the prices of the energy futures markets, which foresee that the cost of a megawatt hour (MWh) will remain above 70 euros during the next five days.

Today, Tuesday the average price exceeds 84 euros, the third highest record so far this month.

For reference, this figure doubles the average cost for the same month in 2020.

The Government s

e limits for now to asking for calm and linking the increase in the bill to a

"conjunctural episode"

motivated by the increase in the international price of gas, the fall in electricity production from renewable sources due to the anticyclone and the 15% increase in electricity demand caused by the cold wave.

The vice president of Ecological Transition,

Teresa Ribera,

has tried by all means to relieve the pressure by asking the

National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC)

to investigate possible fraud in the market and pointing out that, in any case, the impact on the final consumer's bill will only be "a few euros".

His words contrast with those of the CEO of Endesa,

Jose Bogas

, who predicted yesterday

"major rises" on the receipt

for those who have contracted the old regulated rate, now known as PVPC, since their prices are indexed to the wholesale market and fluctuate every hour.

It involves around 14 million households.

If the month of January closed with the current average price, an average consumer would end up suffering a 20% increase in the bill, equivalent to about 15 euros.

But the market is very volatile and fluctuates wildly, so that difference may grow or shrink in the coming days.

According to the futures markets of Omip and Meff, the price reference could even touch the 90 euros per megawatt hour again over the next few days.

For the whole of this week, the price of the future stood at 73 euros yesterday, above the price that caused the last major political crisis around the electricity bill in January 2017, with the PP in power.

At that time, the current Vice President of the Government,

Pablo Iglesias,

came to accuse

Mariano Rajoy

and the former Minister of Energy,

Alvaro Nadal,

of being "accomplices of the greed of the electricity companies" by not intervening in the market.

Now the leader of Podemos is silent on social networks, while the purple formation has published a video in which he advocates nationalizing Endesa, only a few seconds later to regret that he cannot do anything because

Pedro Sanchez

he is not a supporter.

The electricity companies themselves recognize that the price of electricity in Spain is expensive compared to Europe, although they insist that it is not a problem in the generation market.

The origin of this surcharge, as Bogas recalled yesterday, is found in the numerous items that are loaded on the receipt and that have little to do with the electricity supply chain itself.

The Endesa executive applauded, in this regard, that the Government intends to start taking some of these charges off the bill throughout this year, such as

€ 7 billion in premiums

that charge the first renewable facilities that were deployed in Spain during the first decade of the century.

Ribera's plan is for this item to be financed by all energy consumers, and not only by electricity.

In this way, Transición Ecológica works to create a fund that is nurtured by contributions from oil, gas and electricity companies, which will pay for this item.

Then all these companies will foreseeably pass on the new rate to the final consumer, which will cause the reduction in electricity to translate into an increase in the cost of fuel.

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