On June 1, a new model of electricity bill will come into force for consumers covered by the Voluntary Price for the Small Consumer (PVPC) that will promote energy savings, efficiency, self-consumption and the deployment of the electric vehicle.
With this change, the access tolls to the electricity sector are being replaced by two new concepts: the transport and distribution tolls, which are set by the CNMC and which cover the costs of using the electricity transmission and distribution networks; and the charges of the electricity system, established by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and whose collection is destined to finance costs of the system such as the special remuneration regime for renewable energies, cogeneration and generation with waste ( RECORE), the coverage of the deficit from previous years or the compensation of 50% of the extra cost of generation in non-peninsular territories.
New fee structure
The new tariff structure applies price discrimination to all consumers and three periods to all those of less than 15 kW (domestic consumers) for users with PVPC. Thus, three time sections are set: peak, plain and valley.
The peak period, in which the cost of tolls and charges will be higher, will be between 10 am and 2 pm and 6 pm and 10 pm; the flat section, with an intermediate cost, will be between 8 am and 10 am, 2 pm and 6 pm and between 10 pm and midnight; and the valley rate, the cheapest of the three, will be located between midnight and 8 in the morning and will be applied during all hours of weekends and holidays.
Through this rate structure it is intended to encourage the transfer of electricity consumption from the hours of maximum electricity demand (peak hours) to others in which the transmission and distribution networks are less saturated (off-peak hours), which will reduce the need to carry out new investments in said infrastructures. This results in lower costs for electricity consumers, since they are the ones who pay for this type of infrastructure through the electricity bill, and avoid the environmental inconveniences of this type of facilities. Thus, users who shift their consumption to the flat and valley hours, those with the lowest demand, will achieve greater savings on their bill.
In addition, as of June 1, domestic consumers will be able to contract two different powers: one for the peak and flat periods and another for the off-peak period.
In this way, those consumers who have higher power needs in the off-peak period, such as electric vehicle users who wish to charge their car or motorcycle at night at home, will be able to benefit from contracting a higher power for the off-peak period and maintain usual power in the peak and flat sections, avoiding paying the extra cost of that extra power during all hours of the day. If the consumer does not request this change, the current power contracted in both periods will be applied automatically.
Promotion of savings and self-consumption
The combination of the new tolls and charges will allow the electricity bill to have a greater variable component. This will make its cost more dependent on the energy consumed, which promotes energy efficiency by allowing savings measures to have a greater impact on the user’s bill.
This promotes self-consumption, which reduces the demand for energy from the grid, or the deployment of infrastructures for rapid recharging of electric vehicles. This new model will also benefit consumption with a seasonal component such as tourism.
However, the new model will keep a fixed portion of the charges to strike a balance with other energy policy priorities.
In this way, the incentive for the electrification of energy end uses remains, which encourages, for example, the use of heat pumps, which could be cheaper and cleaner than other options based on fossil fuels, or the domestic recharging of vehicles. electrical
New invoice format
These changes will be accompanied by a new invoice format for users with PVPC that will adapt the receipt to the division of the current access tolls in network tolls and charges, will establish the minimum content of the invoice for consumers with less than 15 kW of contracted power, will simplify the content to improve understanding, reduce its length to two pages and incorporate new information such as the maximum powers that each consumer has demanded in each of the time periods in the last year.
In addition, a QR code is included to facilitate the user to use the energy offer comparator on the CNMC website so that they can find advantageous contractual alternatives.