Price of electricity today, Saturday, October 3: the cheapest hour to run the washing machine and the spike of the night

According to the available information, as of October 3, 2026, there is no specific new PVPC reform under processing in the Congress of Deputies that substantially modifies the design of the regulated tariff (calculation formula, weight of futures markets, etc.). What currently applies is the reform already approved in 2023, gradually deployed until consolidated in 2026, while the current debate is about its monitoring and the future of the tariff itself, rather than about a new specific regulatory change.

1. Which PVPC reform is currently in force

The current structure of the PVPC comes from the reform agreed by the Government and ratified by the Congress within the framework of the response packages to the energy crisis. This reform:

• Partially detached the PVPC from the daily market, progressively introducing references from the forward markets (futures) to reduce the volatility of the regulated bill.
• Since January 1, 2026, the reference used to calculate the energy cost in the PVPC is already composed, in a stable way, of 55% linked to forward markets and 45% to the daily and intraday market.
• This reform was incorporated into sectoral regulations and has been applied without any new legislative change currently underway that alters this formula again.

At the same time, technical and regulatory adjustments have been approved — for example, CNMC resolutions that recalculate components of the PVPC price or rules on electricity billing — but these are development and application of the already approved framework, not a new tariff reform in Congress.

2. Parliamentary initiatives: no specific project of “new PVPC reform”

The search for initiatives in the current and previous legislature does not identify an active bill or proposal dedicated to redesigning the PVPC (for example, changing again the distribution between futures and daily market, altering time periods, or restricting who can join).

In Congress, there have been and are:

• Broad laws responding to the energy crisis (such as the project stemming from Royal Decree-law 8/2023, with measures on energy taxes, aid, etc.), already ratified and processed as bills.
• Proposals and motions focused on electricity taxation, lowering the electricity bill, protection against energy poverty, or aid to certain sectors, some of which have lapsed or been rejected.
• Partial amendments in other texts to modify electricity taxes or charges, which affect the final bill but do not constitute an autonomous PVPC reform.

None of these initiatives is presented, in official documentation or political coverage, as a “new PVPC tariff reform” in the strict sense. The core of the current methodology is already incorporated into the legal system and today there is no specific project in the phase of consideration, committee, or report that reopens it.

3. Political debate and European pressure: reforms “on the radar,” but not in the Official Congress Bulletin (BOCG)

Although there is no text under processing, the political and regulatory debate about the future of the PVPC is very much alive:

• The European Commission has asked States with regulated tariffs, like Spain, to design a roadmap for their progressive elimination, considering that their indefinite maintenance distorts competition and discourages efficiency.
• At the same time, the Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, has declared that “at this moment there is no plan to eliminate” the PVPC and that market conditions are not suitable to consider its disappearance, referring to a CNMC analysis on its future convenience.
• Consumer organizations such as OCU warn that eliminating the regulated tariff could increase the bill for households currently under the PVPC, and call for caution and more transparency in the free market.

In summary, the PVPC is in a monitoring and evaluation scenario: Brussels pressures to plan its exit, part of the opposition proposes changes in taxation and aid, and the Government defends maintaining it, relying on the technical reform already applied and future CNMC reports.

4. Conclusion: current status in Congress

With the available information, it can be stated that:

• There is no specific “PVPC reform” under parliamentary processing in Congress as of today.
• The last major reform of the tariff design is already in force and was completed in 2026 with the new distribution between forward markets and daily market.
• Congress debates and processes other energy and fiscal initiatives that influence the electricity bill, but without reopening the basic architecture of the PVPC for now.

Any future substantive reform of the regulated tariff would likely require a new legislative text from the Government or parliamentary groups; so far, this step has not been formalized in the form of a bill or proposal focused on the PVPC.

The National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) does not directly set the electricity price paid by consumers, but it plays a central role in how those prices are formed and supervised. According to Law 3/2013 establishing the CNMC and Law 24/2013 of the Electricity Sector, its function is to ensure the proper functioning, transparency, and effective competition in energy markets, including electricity, acting as an independent regulator and supervisor.

1. Supervision of the wholesale electricity market

• Monitoring the electricity pool: the CNMC supervises the daily and intraday market managed by OMIE, as well as other related markets (balancing services, imbalance, etc.), to verify that the matching of offers is done transparently and competitively.
• Market methodologies and system operation: through circulars such as Circular 3/2019, the CNMC establishes methodologies regulating the operation of the wholesale market and system operation management. These rules decisively condition how hourly energy prices are formed.
• Application of REMIT: under Regulation (EU) 1227/2011 (REMIT) and its 2024 revision, the CNMC is the authority responsible for supervising the integrity and transparency of wholesale markets, monitoring market manipulation, insider trading, and other practices that may distort prices.
• Sanctioning power: it can open investigations and fine companies for anti-competitive conduct or abuse of dominance related to price formation in the wholesale market (e.g., anomalous offers or strategies to raise prices).

2. Tariffs, charges, and other regulated costs

• Network tariff methodology: the CNMC approves the methodology to calculate transport and distribution tariffs (e.g., Circular 3/2020, later modified by other circulars) and annually sets the specific values of these tariffs through resolutions published in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
• Relation to charges and other costs: system charges (set by the competent Ministry) are calculated considering CNMC methodologies and refer to its circulars and resolutions. All this configures the regulated part of the bill, which is added to the market energy price.
• Operation procedures and system services: the CNMC approves or adapts operation procedures (voltage control, balancing, technical restrictions, etc.) and can decide whether certain costs are treated as market components or regulated costs, indirectly influencing the final price.

3. Retail market, offers, and consumer protection

• Supervision of retailers: the CNMC controls the behavior of electricity retailers (both in the free market and, as far as it concerns, in the regulated market), reviews commercial practices, contractual conditions, and compliance with consumer information rules.
• Transparency and information: the body publishes official data and indicators on wholesale and retail prices, and manages tools such as the electricity and gas offer comparator. This information aims to promote competition and allow consumers to choose offers better informed.
• Control of contracts and commercial communication: it supervises that companies clearly explain tariffs (including market-indexed contracts) and that price variations or condition changes comply with consumer and energy regulations. It can also act against aggressive or misleading commercial practices.
• Handling complaints and service quality: it analyzes complaints, evaluates customer service, and can require changes or open proceedings when it detects significant deficiencies that may affect prices or users' rights to change retailers.

4. Institutional coordination and European dimension

• Relation with the Government: although it is an independent authority, it maintains coordination and information exchange channels with economic and energy ministries. The Government can request specific analyses (e.g., on the regulated PVPC tariff or market behavior in crisis situations) but cannot set its technical decisions.
• European role: the CNMC cooperates with the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and other EU regulators in applying REMIT and in coordinated supervision of cross-border markets, seeking “fair price formation” and protection against market abuse.

5. Key idea: supervises, does not set the price

Overall, the CNMC does not decide “how much” electricity costs each hour nor the exact amount of each consumer's bill, but it designs and applies the rules structuring the market and the regulated part of the bill, controls that prices are formed competitively and transparently, sanctions abuses, and provides information and tools so consumers can react. Its competence is therefore regulation, supervision, and sanctioning, not political price setting, but it has a significant impact on the environment in which those prices are determined.

In the latest general elections in Spain, held on July 23, 2023, the map of forces that today drive (or hinder) changes in the energy sector was configured as follows in the Congress of Deputies:

• People's Party (PP): 8,160,837 votes (33.06%) and 137 seats, first force.
• Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE): 7,821,718 votes (31.68%) and 121 seats, second force.
• Vox: around 3.06 million votes (12.38%) and 33 seats.
• Sumar: 3,014,006 votes (12.31%) and 31 seats.
• ERC: 7 seats.
• Junts: 7 seats.
• EH Bildu: 6 seats.
• PNV: 5 seats.
• BNG: 1 seat.
• Canarian Coalition (CCa): 1 seat.

All these parties, by size or role in parliamentary majorities, are relevant to the orientation of energy and climate policy. The July 23 election left a very fragmented Congress, which requires cross agreements and gives several forces a “hinge” role in sector reforms.

Government bloc and energy transition

• PSOE (121 seats)
  It is the axis of the current Government and has defended in the past legislature an agenda of decarbonization and renewable deployment, with figures like Vice President Teresa Ribera at the center of the climate strategy. Official party notes emphasize the energy transition with renewables as key to the growth model, claiming support policies for wind and photovoltaic and measures such as gas caps or extraordinary taxes on energy companies.
• Sumar (31 seats)
  Investiture partner of PSOE and a force to its left, it pressures to accelerate the energy transition: more renewables, greater public intervention in the electricity market, expansion of the social bonus, and more ambitious climate goals. Its ability to influence direction comes from its weight in the government bloc.

Conservative opposition and energy mix shift

• PP (137 seats)
  It is the party with the most seats and, therefore, with the greatest potential capacity to redirect energy policy if it achieved an alternative majority. From the opposition, it has defended:
  • Maintaining or extending the life of nuclear power plants, halting their orderly closure.
  • Tax cuts on energy (VAT on electricity and gas, suspension of the 7% tax on electricity generation, etc.), according to specialized press.
  • Greater emphasis on supply security and prices over the speed of transition.
  In recent debates on the Sustainable Mobility Law, the PP has used its strength in the Senate to introduce amendments against nuclear closures, positioning itself as a key actor on this point.
• Vox (33 seats)
  It has gained weight on the board (more than 12% of votes) and occupies a clearly critical position towards much of the current climate policies. Its messages include:
  • Open defense of thermal and nuclear plants, demanding to extend their life and denouncing what it calls “climate fanaticism.”
  • Rejection of European objectives and regulations that, in its view, raise energy costs and harm industry.
  In coalition with the PP, its votes can be decisive to configure an alternative majority that modifies the current path (for example, on nuclear schedule or energy taxation).

Decisive nationalist and regional parties

The arithmetic of July 23 means that several territorial forces with their own energy agendas are decisive in key votes:

• ERC (7) and EH Bildu (6): combine claims of energy sovereignty in Catalonia and the Basque Country with generally favorable positions to accelerate the ecological transition, strengthen environmental protection, and condition projects to social returns and territory.
• Junts (7): more ambivalent on some issues but very influential. An analysis by Demócrata highlights that the closure or continuation of nuclear plants in a key mobility law could depend on their votes, illustrating how much they control essential levers of the energy model despite their medium size.
• PNV (5): has been a central actor in debates on electric networks, taxation, and reindustrialization. Organizations like Greenpeace have criticized it, along with PP, Vox, and Junts, for closeness to large energy interests in some votes, but the PNV also promotes infrastructure and investment frameworks for renewables in the Basque Country.
• BNG (1) and CCa (1): with a single seat each, but in a very tight Congress, they have influenced debates on energy transition connected to territorial realities (Galicia and the Canary Islands), from networks and storage to taxation and local compensations.

Political outcome: a highly conditioned board

Overall, the July 23 results leave:

• A government bloc (PSOE–Sumar and nationalist allies) with a narrow majority, pushing an agenda of energy transition and renewables, but forced to negotiate almost every reform with several territorial partners.
• A right-wing bloc (PP and Vox) numerically very strong, capable of blocking or revising part of climate policies when it manages to attract intermediate parties or when it comes to laws passing through the Senate.
• A disproportionately large role for Junts, PNV, ERC, Bildu, BNG, and CCa, whose few seats can decide issues as structural as the nuclear schedule, energy taxation, network tariffs, or regulation of large renewable projects.

Therefore, the results of the latest general elections not only distribute seats: they define a balance of forces that makes any relevant change in the energy sector depend on complex pacts among parties with very different views on renewables, prices, taxation, and the role of nuclear energy.