Price of electricity today, October 7: the most expensive hour will be from 19:00 to 20:00 and the cheapest from 15:00 to 16:00

In Spain, there is no single procedure to “change the electric price-setting system,” but rather several pathways depending on the part to be modified: rules of the wholesale market, tariffs and charges, PVPC and social bonus, or more technical operational aspects. All of these are anchored in the Law 24/2013, of the Electric Sector and in development regulations (royal decrees, orders, CNMC circulars, and operational resolutions), as well as European Union regulations on the internal electricity market.

1. Decide which regulatory level needs to be changed

The first political and legal step is to define what is intended to be altered and at which regulatory level it is governed:

• Basic framework of the system and market model (separation of activities, price-setting principles, consumer rights, existence of regulated tariff): contained in Law 24/2013. Any significant change requires a legal reform, through an ordinary law or, in urgent cases, a royal decree-law, later ratified by Congress.
• General methodologies of PVPC and other regulated prices: set by royal decree of the Government, which develops the law (for example, the calculation methodology of PVPC or charges).
• Specific annual amounts of tariffs and charges, regulated costs, tariff parameters: regularly set by ministerial order of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO).
• Network tariff methodology and part of the market and balancing services design: corresponds to CNMC circulars, which are then specified in periodic resolutions.
• Operating rules of the day-ahead and intraday markets and system operation procedures: included in CNMC or State Secretariat for Energy resolutions, usually proposed by the system operator (Red Eléctrica) and the market operator (OMIE), and published in the BOE.

2. Technical preparation of the proposal

Once the regulatory scope is identified, the competent body (Government, ministry, CNMC or, if applicable, European institutions) prepares a technical draft including:

• Impact analysis report (system costs, bill, competition, energy transition, vulnerability).
• Studies on effects on domestic consumers, vulnerable groups, SMEs, and energy-intensive industries, self-consumption, storage, and renewables.
• Analysis of compatibility with EU Law, including Regulation (EU) 2019/943 and its reforms and Directive (EU) 2019/944 and its update.
• In the case of market rules, technical work with REE, OMIE, and sector agents to adjust operation procedures and day-ahead, intraday, and balancing markets.

3. Public consultation, hearing, and reports

With the draft ready, the participation and control phase opens:

• Prior public consultation (for laws and major regulations): MITECO publishes a note on objectives and problems to solve and collects proposals from citizens, companies, and organizations.
• Hearing and public information: the full text (bill draft, royal decree draft, order, CNMC circular) is exposed for a period for formal allegations. This is especially relevant for changes in tariffs, charges, network methodologies, or PVPC.
• Mandatory or optional reports: depending on the case, CNMC intervenes (setting criteria on impact on competition and consumers), other economic ministries, Autonomous Communities, and the Council of State, which may question compliance with the Electric Sector Law or the distribution of competences.

4. National approval

The decision-making procedure varies according to the type of norm:

• Electric reform law: the Council of Ministers approves a bill and sends it to Congress. The ordinary legislative procedure is followed (consideration, committee, plenaries in Congress and Senate, amendments, voting). The text is sanctioned by the King and published in the BOE.
• Urgent royal decree-law: approved by the Council of Ministers and enters into force upon publication; Congress must ratify or repeal it within 30 days and may process it as a bill to introduce changes.
• Royal decree (e.g., methodology of charges or PVPC): approved in the Council of Ministers, with impact documentation and reports, and published in the BOE.
• Ministerial orders (tariffs, annual charges, cost adjustments): signed by the head of MITECO, usually after deliberation in the Government Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs.
• CNMC circulars and resolutions (tariff methodologies and market rules): CNMC processes proposals with interested party hearings, approves the text in its Council, and publishes it in the BOE.

5. European alignment and subsequent control

Any reform must respect the framework of the internal electricity market. European regulations are directly applicable and may require adapting national rules; directives require modifying national laws and regulations within a set timeframe. Additionally:

• The European Commission may open infringement procedures if Spain adopts incompatible measures (e.g., unjustified regulated prices or limitations on price formation).
• Norms with the rank of law can be challenged before the Constitutional Court, and CNMC regulations and acts before the contentious-administrative jurisdiction.

In summary, modifying the electric price system involves a chain of linked decisions: choice of instrument (law, regulation, order, circular), technical preparation, participation and control through consultations and reports, formal approval by the competent body, and verification of European compatibility, followed by adaptation of contracts, operation procedures, and billing systems.

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), mainly through the State Secretariat for Energy and its general directorates, is the body that designs and executes the Government's energy policy and, within it, the regulation of the electric market. Its powers are mainly based on the Law 24/2013, of December 26, of the Electric Sector, developed by various regulatory norms.

1. General framework and regulatory authority

According to Law 24/2013 (arts. 3 and 4), it corresponds to the General State Administration —and in practice to MITECO and the Government—:

• Establish the energy policy in electricity and the objectives of supply security, sustainability, and competition.
• Approve the regulatory development of the Electric Sector Law: royal decrees and orders that configure the system and market operation.
• Guarantee the economic and financial sustainability of the electric system, a principle that conditions all the regulation (preamble and arts. 14 to 19 of Law 24/2013).

These functions are organizationally specified in MITECO's structure fixed by its royal decrees of structure (the search result identifies a Royal Decree 503/2024 that orders the internal competences of the State Secretariat for Energy and the general directorates responsible for electricity).

2. Electric transmission network planning

The planning of electricity transmission networks is a central state competence (Law 24/2013, arts. 4 and 5). In practice:

• MITECO prepares the proposal for Transmission Network Planning (for example, the 2030 horizon planning cited in Moncloa press releases) and submits it to public information and hearing.
• Coordinates this process in the Energy Sector Conference with autonomous communities, which inform and cooperate in defining network needs.
• The planning is approved by the Government, but the technical work and processing fall to MITECO.

3. Access tariffs and system charges

Since Royal Decree-Law 1/2019, tariffs (CNMC competence) and charges (MITECO/Government competence) are clearly separated, always based on Law 24/2013:

• Transmission and distribution tariffs: methodology and values are approved by the CNMC (Circular 3/2020 and its modifications), under art. 16 of Law 24/2013. MITECO sets, via law and royal decrees, the general framework within which CNMC acts.
• Electric system charges:
  • Law 24/2013 (art. 3.7 and art. 16, after RDL 1/2019) assigns to the Government, at MITECO's proposal, the regulation of the structure and methodology of charges.
  • Royal Decree 148/2021, of March 9, develops that methodology, and the annual TED orders on charges (e.g., Order TED/113/2024 and Order TED/1524/2025) set their prices and the allocation of regulated costs each year.

In short, MITECO designs and proposes to the Government the charge methodology and issues the orders that specify them annually, while CNMC sets tariffs with its own methodologies but consistent with Law 24/2013.

4. Remuneration regime for networks and renewables

Law 24/2013 (arts. 14, 15, 27, and 30) assigns to the State the regulation of the remuneration regime for regulated activities and production with specific remuneration:

• Transmission and distribution: royal decrees 1047/2013 and 1048/2013 (identified in MITECO remuneration resolutions) and subsequent CNMC intervention in remuneration methodologies define how investment and network operation are remunerated. MITECO proposes regulations and approves parameters and regulated costs in annual orders and resolutions.
• Specific remuneration regime for renewables, cogeneration, and waste: Royal Decree 413/2014 establishes the legal-economic framework for these facilities, including the specific remuneration regime registry whose management also falls to the State Secretariat for Energy. MITECO resolutions update quarterly the remuneration for operation of certain facilities.

5. Renewable auctions and incentive design

Based on Law 24/2013 and Royal Decree-Law 23/2020, Royal Decree 960/2020 regulates the economic regime of renewable energies granted through competitive bidding procedures:

• MITECO designs the auction scheme (product, bidding variable, deadlines, obligations).
• Calls the auctions through ministerial orders and sets the economic conditions of the awarded energy.
• Press releases and BOE resolutions show how MITECO calls auctions for cogeneration, biomass, or other technologies and determines the regulated surcharge charged to the system.

6. Access and connection to networks, market, and consumers

Regarding access and connection, Royal Decree 1183/2020 develops art. 33 of Law 24/2013:

• The Government, at MITECO's proposal, sets the general principles and criteria for access and connection permits to transmission and distribution networks.
• CNMC completes this framework with technical methodologies through circulars.

Regarding the retail market and consumer information, Royal Decree 216/2014 (partially amended) and subsequent norms regulate voluntary prices for small consumers and billing models, while Order TED/456/2021 determines the information that retailers must send to MITECO about prices applied to final consumers.

7. Supervision of the regulatory framework and sharing with CNMC

The economic and competition supervision of the market mainly corresponds to the CNMC (Law 3/2013 and Law 24/2013: supervision, inspection and sanction, setting tariff methodologies, access and connection). However:

• MITECO monitors the sector's functioning, proposes regulatory reforms, issues energy policy guidelines (e.g., Order TED/1494/2021 on access and connection), and coordinates with CNMC.
• The practical result is a shared model: the Ministry guides and regulates, and CNMC applies technical methodologies and supervises market agents.

In sum, Law 24/2013 is the basic piece that assigns to the State, and materially to MITECO and the Government, electric planning, charge design, the architecture of the remuneration regime and renewable auctions, and the general framework of access, connection, and markets, while CNMC circulars complete the economic and supervisory regulation of the electric market.

To subscribe to the regulated electricity tariff in Spain, the Voluntary Price for the Small Consumer (PVPC), it is necessary to meet a series of technical and ownership requirements set by regulation. From there, vulnerable households wishing to benefit from the electric social bonus must meet additional income and family situation conditions, but always starting from having already contracted PVPC.

1. Who can contract the PVPC tariff

• Type of holder:
  • Natural persons holding an electricity supply point.
  • Microenterprises that prove this status. According to the EU definition, a microenterprise is one with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet not exceeding 2 million euros (information collected by MITECO in its FAQs about PVPC and electricity supply contracting).
• Companies that are NOT microenterprises: small, medium, and large companies exceeding those thresholds cannot contract PVPC and must go to the free market.

2. Technical requirements of the supply point

• Supply voltage: the point must be connected at low voltage, that is, with a voltage not exceeding 1 kV. The Government itself describes PVPC as a price available to holders of supply points “with voltages not exceeding 1 kV.”
• Contracted power:
  • The power must be equal to or less than 10 kW in each contracted power time period.
  • This 10 kW limit marks the boundary of the “small consumer.” Although the general domestic tariff (2.0TD) can reach up to 15 kW, for contracting PVPC the regulatory reference remains ≤ 10 kW.
• Use of the supply:
  • In the case of domestic consumers, PVPC is usually contracted for the main residence, especially when accessing the social bonus.
  • In the case of microenterprises, the supply may correspond to their headquarters or premises, as long as voltage and power limits are respected.

3. Relationship with the free market and the retailer

• Reference retailer (COR): PVPC can only be contracted with one of the reference retailers designated by the Government. Free market retailers cannot offer this tariff.
• Only one contract per supply point:
  • The supply point wishing to subscribe to PVPC cannot be simultaneously linked to a free market offer.
  • If the consumer is in the free market and wants PVPC, they must change retailer and sign a PVPC contract with a reference retailer.
• Ownership: the person wishing to subscribe to PVPC must be the contract holder. This is especially relevant to later access the social bonus.

4. Additional requirements for vulnerable households (social bonus)

The electric social bonus is a discount on the bill, but it is not a different tariff: it applies only to contracts already subscribed to PVPC. For a vulnerable household to benefit from the social bonus, in summary:

• PVPC contract in the main residence, with power ≤ 10 kW, in the name of a natural person and managed by a reference retailer (conditions reiterated by the Government and consumer guides).
• Economic or family requirements defined in Royal Decree 897/2017:
  • Annual income limits linked to the IPREM, varying according to the number of adults and minors in the household.
  • Specific cases: large families, pensioners with minimum pension, beneficiaries of the Minimum Vital Income, among others.
  • Special situations (disability, dependency, gender violence, terrorism, etc.) that raise income thresholds.

In summary, any domestic consumer or microenterprise that meets the low voltage and power ≤ 10 kW limits, and contracts supply with a reference retailer, can opt for PVPC. From there, only vulnerable households that prove income and family conditions can add the social bonus to that regulated tariff, with significant discounts on their electricity bill.