The incessant rise in the electricity bill last year has been one of the main concerns of many Spanish families who have seen how the amount was multiplied to pay despite the different measures and saving tricks that it was possible to apply to try to reduce the cost at the end of the month.
However, another of the weapons within our reach has been compare prices and offers between the different electricity companies, for example, to see if it was convenient for us to switch to the free market in the event that we had a rate in the regulated or PVPC (Voluntary Price to the Small Consumer).
Until the end of last year, it was the electricity companies in the free market that offered the cheapest alternatives outside the regulated tariff by the Government, which as we saw in this article had its advantages and disadvantages.
However, at the beginning of 2023 the situation changed and it was the most affordable PVPC rate in many areas of the country due to the progressive drop in prices and compensation for the gas cap. How is the situation now facing spring?
Spring prices for the electricity rate
In the modality of regulated tariff or PVPC the price of the energy is variable, changes every hour and is subject to the electricity market volatilityaccording to the supply and demand between the energy generating companies and the marketers that sell that energy to the consumer every day.
Electricity is usually more expensive in winter and summer, when energy demand rises due to the use of heating and air conditioning, but prices dropped in spring and autumn, when said demand decreases.
Now we are fully entering spring and It is to be expected that prices will continue to decline. (if nothing strange happens in the market), so the forecasts suggest that the PVPC rate with hourly discrimination will continue to be competitive.
However, to check how things are right now we have done a search in the CNMC comparator for our area of residence. To do this, all you have to do is enter their website, select that we want to analyze the electricity rate (we can also see the gas rates or both combined) and after starting on the next screen, it will ask us some simple questions, such as what is our Postal Codethe estimated annual electricity consumption (data that we can look for in our past bills), the hired potency And if we want to contract any extra service.
After filling in these fields, a warning message will appear indicating that the prices that they will give us do not include compensation from the cap to gas, we accept and the page will show us a comparison with the price of the regulated rate or PVPC at the top and a table with the offers of the different companies.
In my case, for my specific area with a contracted power of 5 kW and a consumption of 400 kWh It tells me that the PVPC would cost me 82.83 euros per month. For their part, the cheapest free market rates have similar amounts, as long as we do not look at the data for the first billing period, where rebates and discounts usually apply.
Comparator with the 10 cheapest rates. Source: CNMC
For example, the cheapest rates in the free market are the following:
- Bonpreu Let’s make it easy! with a kilowatt hour price of €0.159999 plus the cost of the gas cap and a total cost of 81.66 euros per month. There is also another Bonpreu modality in third place, the Night and Day Plan with variable prices and a cost of 83.45 euros per month.
- Endesa Conecta with a price per each kWh consumed of €0.145587 plus the cost of the gas cap and a monthly price of €81.76.
- Naturgy Fee for Use appears below in fourth place on the list with a price per each kWh consumed of 0.162897 € plus the cost of the gas cap and a total monthly amount of 86.50 euro.
As we can see, unlike what happened in 2022, the prices of the cheapest rates in the free market once the initial discounts for making us customers that are usually given in the first invoices have been exhausted. are very similar to those of the free market or PVPC, although there are some free rates that continue to be below the regulated prices.
Does this mean that it is worth changing now to one of these cheaper rates than the PVPC? Well, it depends on each specific case, on what we are paying in our current contract if we are in the free market, on whether we have penalties for changehow much we have left on the contract and if we can negotiate a lower price with the current company.
However, as we said at the beginning, spring is usually a period of lower prices for electricity, especially in some time slots and days such as weekends where the price is even “almost free” at times. Therefore, if we can adapt our increased energy consumption to these times, the PVPC rate and its differentiation by sections continues to be a very good option.
Cover image | Anaïs MURITH
In Xataka Smart Home | How to know what price electricity will have tomorrow, whether you have a rate in the free market or in the regulated one