The Official State Gazette (BOE) has published the order that fixes the prices of the electricity system charges and capacity payments, which will allow the entry into force of the new structure of the electricity bill as from June 1st.

The charges finance the regulated costs of the electricity system with the exception of the remuneration of the transmission and distribution networks.

In the case of the Spanish electricity system, the most relevant are the cost of the special regime for renewable energies, cogeneration and generation with waste (Recore), the coverage of the deficit from previous years and the compensation of 50% of the excess cost of generation in non-peninsular territories.

Specifically, the total amount of the electricity system charges amounts to some 9,578 million euros, while the income destined to compensate these charges amounts to some 2,956 million euros, mainly coming from the tax figures of Law 15/2012, of 27 December, and from the auctions of CO2 emission rights, which leaves an amount of charges to be financed by consumers in 2021 of 6,621 million euros.

The approved order establishes the prices for 2021 of the different tariff segments of the electricity system charges, the prices applicable to public access electric vehicle charging points and the unit prices to be applied to the financing of capacity payments.

According to the order, the percentages to be applied for the purposes of the information on the destination of the cost of the electricity system charges in the electricity bill will be 47.93% for the Recore, 37.89% for the deficit, 14.04% for the non-peninsular territories and 0.13% for other concepts.

This order is developed in application of the draft Royal Decree establishing the methodology for calculating electricity bill charges.

The aim of these charge prices is to ensure that the revenues of the electricity system in 2021 are sufficient to cover the total amount of the regulated costs that finance the charges in this fiscal year.

ROYAL DECREE ON THE METHODOLOGY OF CHARGES

This order thus complements the Royal Decree on the methodology for calculating electricity system charges approved last March by the Government, which defines that the calculation of charges will have a fixed and a variable part, which will be determined on the basis of the contracted power and the energy consumed, respectively.

Together with the transmission and distribution tolls – set by the National Competition Market Commission (CNMC) – the charges make up the regulated part of the electricity bill.

The approved methodology establishes a similar structure of charges to the transmission and distribution tolls in order to bring coherence and simplicity to the system.

To bring simplicity and coherence to the system, the Royal Decree assumes the same tariff structure, by voltage levels, as that set by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) in its methodology for calculating electricity transmission and distribution tolls. The same billing components are also used and a charge structure with hourly discrimination has been chosen, using the same design of periods as that proposed by the regulator for the tolls.

The most noteworthy aspect of this tariff structure, initially set by the CNMC and reproduced in the Royal Decree, is that all consumers with a contracted power of less than 15 kW -most domestic users and SMEs- will now have three differentiated billing periods.

The text also adapts the figure of the Voluntary Price for the Small Consumer (PVPC) to the new structure of tolls and charges. The scheme for the distribution of charges will make it possible to recover an amount equivalent to that obtained with the prices of access tolls and capacity payments in force for each tariff segment.