electricity

Cost continues to soar as experts say encouraging renewables through legislation would contribute to lower bill

Spanish government considering further lowering taxes to ease impact of high prices

All-time high on Tuesday, peaking at €137.46 per MWh, will be short-lived as new record expected on Wednesday

Unprecedented upwards trend has been ongoing for over a month, as cost is over three times greater than August 2020

Best time to use appliances on Thursday is from 11 am to noon

New all-time high of €106.57 per MW/h in Spain

Measure comes after revised electricity tariffs cause confusion and anger among customers

Alliance against Energy Poverty reminds vulnerable households they are protected by law from having supply cut off

High demand stresses "outdated" electrical network, which results in overloads and frequent power outages especially in the Barcelona area

Company CEO says moving its registered office to Madrid may not be “forever”

Prices went up by 1% in October, in comparison to September, and left the annual inflation rate in Catalonia at 0.9%, according to the definitive data released on Tuesday by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE). The products that influenced the increase in prices most were the clothing and footwear sector, due to the start of the winter season, and the price of electricity and fuel – both rose in October this year, while they decreased in the same month of 2015. The inflation rate at the end of October is the highest registered since August 2013, when it reached 1.7%, and confirms an upward trend that has now lasted for three months. 

The European Parliament will ask for the domestic energy supply not to be cut off during winter and resume the supply to those who are currently without it. The decision coincides with the recent suspension by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) of the Catalan law against energy poverty, which guaranteed energy supply to those families who couldn’t pay their bills. The TC considered the Catalan decree “unconstitutional” as it “invaded competences” of the Spanish State. In an interview with CNA, Green MEP Tamás Meszerics, who promoted the moratorium, stressed “the role of the local authorities in fighting against energy poverty”. “If a regional government is able to finance, at least partly, this policy, I don’t see why it shouldn’t go forward”, he added.

Prices have started to recover. They increased by 0.3% this past November in Catalonia and broke the negative trend of the last three months. Thus, the annual inflation rate is now 0%, according to the Spanish Institute of Statistics (INE). This increase has been caused mainly by the stabilisation of fuel prices, which dropped in 2014, the increase in the cost of electricity in comparison to the same period last year and the rise in the price of clothing and housing in November. Barcelona is the only region where the inflation rate is slightly positive; it was 0.1% at the end of November, whereas the previous month it was -0.1%. In the whole of Spain, prices rose by 0.4% last month in comparison to October but the annual rate is still negative, at -0.3%. 

Catalonia posts a -0.5% annual inflation rate in September, the second consecutive negative figure this year. This decline is mainly caused by the fall in electricity and fuel prices, which has led to an annual decrease in housing (-3.5%) and transportation (-6.6%) prices. However, the sector which registered the highest drop in monthly terms was leisure, -3% in comparison to last September. On the other side, the price of clothing, education and medicine has increased this month, while food and non-alcoholic beverage prices remained steady. All the Autonomous Communities have seen a decrease in the annual inflation rate and in Spain as a whole prices have dropped by 0.9%. Catalonia is, together with the Basque Country, the Community with the second-smallest decrease in the annual inflation rate. 

The Constitutional Court has accepted the Spanish Government's appeal against the Catalan Executive' decree from December 2013 with which families in need are protected from their household electricity and gas being cut off by energy supply companies during winter months. The Catalan Government's measure aimed to fight the so-called 'energy poverty': people who cannot afford to pay for their energy bills because they do not get minimum income. The decree was not a cancellation of the bills but to allow those families to postpone the payment during the winter months. However, the Spanish Executive considered that the Catalan measure represented a "discrimination" against the citizens from other Autonomous Communities, who have to pay their energy bills on time. The appeal goes against Catalonia's political autonomy and is arbitrary. The Catalan Government stated it was "upset" by the ban and added that it will find an alternative way to help those families.