The transition from the runaway regulated market to the free market since last summer doubled in the midst of the electricity price crisis
The escalation in electricity prices that Spain has suffered since last summer, now exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, has led to a radical shift in the tariffs that citizens had taken on, moving en masse from the regulated market to the free market as never before. . looking for more stable rates. Notably, 1,250,101 households opted for some of the dozens of stable rates offered by marketers and decided to abandon the PVPC, after recording continuous historical cost records.
This high number of consumers switching from the regulated to the free market more than doubles the transfer request between both types of tariffs in 2020, when it barely crossed half a million portability. In addition, the figure recorded by the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) last year reveals a record number of tariff transfers, compared to 663,000 in 2019 or 737,000 in 2018. There were also those who moved from the free market to the regulated market, although they may have done so in the early part of last year, when pool prices were still relatively low, before starting to rise in June. Some 428,000 households opted for the regulated rate from one of the free ones.
With all this data there are already 19.8 million delivery points on the free market compared to 10 million on the regulated market, the historical minimum. This means that they already represent less than 33% of the total, compared to 40% until a year ago. The data for 2021 is preliminary, as even though the companies sent their data to the CNMC, they could still send us some adjustments.
These huge changes are explained by the fact that last year the regulated tariff was no longer the most competitive on the market in terms of price, compared to all the free market offers. Specifically, an average home (contracted power of 4.5 kW and an annual consumption of 3,000 kWh) paid nearly 1,000 euros in electricity bills last year (about 83 euros per month), compared to just over 600 euros per year for the previous exercise. And this taking into account the reduction in VAT (from 21% to 10%), the electricity tax (from 5.1% to 0.5%) and the charges of the fixed part.
In 2021, marketer changes in the electricity market have increased by 36.7% compared to 2020, reaching a total of 5 million. 91.4% of transfers, whether made on the free market or on the regulated market, had to be concluded with a free market trader. In concrete terms, some 3.3 million households changed their electricity supply within the free market; and just over 7,000 did so within the five companies on the regulated market.
The data updated by the CNMC also reflect a higher rate of change of marketers from the regulated to the free market in the communities of Galicia (5.4%), the Canary Islands (4.8%) and Castilla La Mancha and Murcia ( in both cases by 4.7% In absolute terms, the regions of Andalusia and Catalonia stood out, where 234,000 and 174,000 consumers respectively moved from the regulated market to the free market (100,000 and 88,000 consumers in 2020) in 2021. For their part, Asturias (1.7%) and Cantabria (2.6%).
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
