Electricity prices rise 450% after Spain's blackout

After the blackout in Spain that lasted throughout Monday and a big part of Tuesday morning in some areas, the price of electricity is going up. Today, the average cost of electricity on the wholesale market soared 450%, to 31.83 euros per MWh (megawatt hour), according to data collected by the Iberian electricity market operator (OMIE). Despite this spectacular rise, the average price has been below 50 euros per MWh for eight days prior to that.

In terms of time slots, the highest price was from 7 to 8am, when it reached 117.01 euros, while the cheapest time slot was from 2 to 3pm, with a price of -0.17 euros.

Although the price has gone from 5 euros on Tuesday to almost 32 euros on Wednesday, this is a 27.9% drop from a week ago, but a 950% increase from 3.03 euros a month ago, on 30 March.

Year-on-year comparison shows that today's figure is 40.4% lower than a year ago: on 30 April last year, the price was 53.44 euros per MWh.

The large variation on Wednesday has nothing to do with the blackout, but rather with the fact that the price per megawatt hour on Tuesday stood at zero euros or even at a negative at various times. This caused the average to drop significantly to the aforementioned 5.79 euros.

The increase only affects the regulated market, i.e. those customers with a PVPC tariff (voluntary price for the small consumer). Customers with a free-markt tariff are not affected by these fluctuations, as they have a fixed price.