Europa Press

Updated Saturday, March 9, 2024-11:53

The price of the wholesale electricity market, the so-called

pool

, will once again hit a new minimum price this Saturday so far in 2024, with an average for the day of 0.59 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), thus

registering its level lowest in the last decade

.

The maximum price of the day will be 3.5 euros/MWh, between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., although practically throughout the entire day

it will be at zero euros/MWh

or around it, according to the Operator's provisional data. of the Iberian Energy Market (OMIE) collected by Europa Press.

Thus, until 8:00 p.m., a total of 13 hours will be added to those zero euros/MWh, while there will be another seven hours throughout the day practically very close to that level.

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.

We would have to go back

to 2014 and 2013

to find such low levels for a day with average prices for a day below the euro/MWh.

This significant decrease in the

pool

is due, mainly, to the presence of the front that has been leaving abundant

rainfall on the Iberian Peninsula since this Thursday, with wind and snow

, and which will continue in the coming days, thus promoting the entry of renewables. -especially wind power- in the generation mix.

In addition, on weekends there is a drop in demand that makes the price even cheaper.

In the first eight days of March, the average of the

pool

is around 12 euros/MWh, after having added seven days below the level of 10 euros/MWh.

In February, the average daily price of the wholesale market stood at 40 euros/MWh, with a decrease of 46% compared to January and 69.7% compared to a year ago -132.06 euros/MWh-, due to The high participation of renewables, especially due to the storms of the last week.

VAT at 21%

This fact caused electricity to temporarily recover its

Value Added Tax (VAT) of 21% since March

, after the wholesale market price registered a lower average in February than 45 euros/MWh, the limit set in the Real. Decree of urgent measures.

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 bar 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 prices at medium and long term 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% from 2026.