Price of electricity today, September 4: the most expensive hour will be from 21:00 to 22:00 and the cheapest from 14:00 to 15:00

The daily variation of the electricity price in the Spanish electricity market (mainly in the wholesale market or “pool”) responds to the interaction between supply and demand, conditioned by regulation and technical factors. There is no single cause, but rather a set of elements that, combined, cause the price to change every hour and every day.

1. Electricity demand

The first determinant is how much electricity is consumed at each moment:

• Hourly and seasonal patterns: during the day, especially during peak hours (morning and afternoon), demand usually rises; at night it falls. In winter it increases due to electric heating and in summer due to air conditioning.
• Temperature and weather: cold or heat waves trigger the use of heating or air conditioning. A small increase in demand can have a large impact on the price if it forces more expensive technologies to come online.
• Economic activity: working days, holidays, industrial shutdowns or production surges affect consumption and, therefore, prices.

2. Generation technology mix (“mix”)

The hourly price is set according to the cost of the last technology needed to meet demand (marginal system). Therefore, which technologies are available at each hour is key:

• Variable renewables (wind and solar): their “fuel” is free, so they offer at very low prices. When there is a lot of wind or sun, they displace more expensive technologies and the price drops. When there is little renewable resource, more expensive plants must come online and the price rises.
• Hydraulic: many plants can “store” water for moments of high prices. In dry periods or with low reservoirs, the capacity for cheap production decreases; in wet periods, the opposite.
• Nuclear: usually operates continuously (base load), but maintenance stops or incidents reduce cheap supply and force the use of more expensive plants.
• Gas (combined cycles): these are often the technologies that set the price in many hours. If they are frequently needed to meet demand, the price tends toward gas costs.

3. Price of fossil fuels and CO₂

The cost of producing with gas, coal or fuel depends on:

• International gas price (and to a lesser extent coal): if gas becomes more expensive due to geopolitical tension, high international demand or supply problems, the costs of combined cycles soar.
• Price of CO₂ emission rights: fossil plants must buy rights in the European market. If CO₂ prices rise, the cost of producing with these technologies increases and drags the pool price upward.

4. Interconnections with other countries

Spain is connected with France, Portugal and, to a lesser extent, with other European systems:

• When external prices are higher, it may be profitable to export electricity, which reduces the available internal supply and pushes Spanish prices up.
• If outside prices are lower, imports help cover part of the demand, reducing the need for expensive technologies and moderating the internal price.

5. Regulation, taxes and regulated costs

Although the wholesale market is set by competitive offers, the regulatory framework influences:

• Market design (marginalist, matching rules, balancing services, technical restrictions) conditions which offers enter and at what prices.
• Tariffs, charges and taxes do not change the pool price, but do affect the final price perceived by the consumer, and can modify supply and demand incentives (for example, self-consumption or the use of certain technologies).
• Exceptional measures (gas caps, temporary adjustments, fiscal changes) can indirectly alter wholesale prices by modifying the effective costs of some technologies.

6. Technical and system security factors

The system operator must guarantee at all times the balance between generation and consumption:

• Technical restrictions (network limits, congestions, reserve needs) sometimes force dispatching specific plants even if they are more expensive, raising the price.
• Unexpected unavailabilities (failures in plants, lines, or shutdowns due to faults) suddenly reduce supply, which can cause price spikes.

Overall, the daily electricity price in Spain is the result of the dynamic combination of these factors. Modest changes in any one of them (for example, less wind or a temporary gas price increase) can translate into significant price variations, especially during hours when demand is highest and the system needs to resort to the most expensive technologies.

Spanish legislation has built, especially since Law 24/2013 of the Electricity Sector and Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007 on consumer and user protection, a set of mechanisms to cushion or limit the impact of electricity price increases on households, especially vulnerable ones. They do not eliminate market volatility, but they do act on prices, taxes, contracts, and protection against supply cuts.

1. Regulated tariff PVPC and price design

The Voluntary Price for the Small Consumer (PVPC), regulated in Law 24/2013 and Royal Decree 216/2014, is the regulated tariff to which domestic consumers with contracted power ≤10 kW can subscribe. Its mission is to offer a transparent price, linked to the wholesale market but under public rules.

After the energy crisis, the Government has reformed the PVPC to reduce volatility: as explained by Demócrata, from 2024 the calculation progressively incorporates futures market prices, so the bill no longer depends solely on the daily hourly price, which smooths peaks derived from sharp gas or “pool” price rises.

2. Electric social bonus and prohibition of cuts

The electric social bonus, regulated by Royal Decree 897/2017 and its development, is the main structural instrument of income protection against electricity price:

• It is a direct discount on the bill for vulnerable consumers subscribed to the PVPC in their main residence, with power ≤10 kW.
• Requirements are set by income, family situation (large family, minimum pensions, Minimum Vital Income, etc.) and annual consumption limits (for example, 1,587 kWh for a single person or two adults, up to 4,761 kWh for large families, according to the Moncloa note of 07/04/2024: note on measures against the energy crisis).
• Discount percentages have been reinforced after the crisis: the same note details a path culminating, indefinitely from July 2025, in a 35 % for vulnerable and 50 % for severely vulnerable, above the previous 25 % and 40 %, respectively.

Additionally, anti-crisis regulations have introduced a prohibition on cutting supply of electricity, gas, and water until at least 12/31/2024 for those who are vulnerable, severely vulnerable, or at risk of social exclusion (same Moncloa note). The new General Regulation approved in 2026 allows autonomous communities and local entities to declare the supplies of social bonus beneficiaries essential to prevent interruption even in case of non-payment (MITECO note, 02/10/2026).

3. Fiscal and tariff measures

As a temporary reinforcement, various royal decree-laws responding to the energy crisis have temporarily reduced electricity taxation:

• Reduction of electricity VAT from 21 % to 10 % for contracts up to 10 kW when the average market price exceeds €45/MWh, and for social bonus recipients, a measure extended until 12/31/2024 (Moncloa, 07/04/2024).
• Temporary reductions of the Special Electricity Tax, included in various decree-laws (not detailed in texts but mentioned in Demócrata press as part of relief packages).

Meanwhile, Law 24/2013 and Royal Decree 148/2021 regulate the methodology of system charges, while the CNMC sets transport and distribution tariffs. This does not “freeze” prices but prevents these regulated items from passing on discretionary increases to the bill.

4. Contractual rights and supplier switching

To enable consumers to defend themselves against price increases, recent legislation strengthens their contractual rights:

• The Royal Decree approving the General Regulation of Supply, Marketing and Aggregation (MITECO, 2026) generally prohibits unsolicited commercial calls and telephone contracting, aiming to cut aggressive practices that led to switching to more expensive tariffs.
• Supplier switching is expedited (maximum 10 days) and permanency clauses are prohibited except in fixed-price contracts during their first year, with a maximum penalty of 5 % of pending energy. If the consumer switches to PVPC for being vulnerable, no penalty can be applied.
• Before any price modification, the company must provide an independent document summarizing the impact on the bill and including a price comparison before and after the change (MITECO, 2026).

Added to this are CNMC reminders that suppliers with fixed-price contracts cannot unilaterally alter the agreed price (note of 06/23/2025). Together with the right to rescind without cost after contractual modifications (strengthened by RDL 7/2026 cited by Demócrata), this allows consumers to escape abusive increases by changing companies.

5. Transparency, billing and information

Billing regulations (Resolution of 04/28/2021 of the Directorate General of Energy Policy and Mines) and the new General Regulation require:

• A minimum invoice model detailing separately energy, power, tariffs, charges, and taxes.
• Standardized information and QR codes to access the official CNMC offer comparator.
• Free, traceable customer service with maximum response times; reinforced complaint channels and possible recourse to arbitration boards (MITECO, 2026).

This transparency does not directly lower the price but enables consumers to compare offers, detect unjustified increases, and exercise their rights to change contracts or file complaints.

Based on the information available from the conducted search, at least 32 relevant initiatives can be identified in the last legislature aimed at regulating, modifying, or directly influencing the price of electricity or the electricity bill, mainly through energy-related norms and decisions. This figure comes from a sample of related initiatives and norms and should not be interpreted as an exhaustive count of all parliamentary initiatives presented.

1. Scope of the figure and nuances

The search was oriented to locate initiatives affecting the electricity price, including measures on the wholesale market, the regulated tariff (PVPC), charges and tariffs, price caps, or mechanisms to limit extraordinary profits (“windfall profits”). The overall result was:

• 32 initiatives identified across the legislature, including royal decree-laws, royal decrees, ministerial orders, and other relevant provisions or publications in electric policy.
• Within this set, the prioritized parliamentary search returned at least 4 legislative initiatives directly linked to the electricity price or the so-called “Iberian mechanism,” processed in the General Courts.

It is important to emphasize that the system prioritized the most relevant initiatives by content and that, therefore, the figure of 32 should be understood as a minimum floor and not as the absolute total of all questions, non-legislative proposals (PNL), interpellations, or minor initiatives referencing the electricity price.

2. Indicative breakdown by type and body

In the reviewed sample, the main weight falls on norms and initiatives driven from the Government sphere, especially the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge:

• By proposing body (executive):
  • Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge: 23 publications.
  • Head of State (sanctioned or promulgated norms): 6 publications.
  • Other bodies linked to the energy field: 3 publications.
• By type of publication:
  • Royal decree and royal decree-law: 7 publications.
  • Orders and ministerial orders: 12 publications in total.
  • Other provisions and documents (agreements, draft bills, etc.): 8 publications.

In the strictly parliamentary field (Congress and Senate), the highlighted search returns some emblematic legislative initiatives, situated in the XIV Legislature:

• Royal Decree-law 3/2023, of March 28, extending the cost adjustment mechanism to reduce the electricity price in the wholesale market (Congress, initiative 130/000095; publication in the BOCG of 04/27/2023).
• Bill derived from Royal Decree-law 18/2022, of October 18, on measures to strengthen energy consumer protection (Congress, initiative (XIV)121/000133).
• Bill derived from Royal Decree-law 34/2020, on urgent measures to support business solvency and the energy sector and on tax matters (Congress, initiative (XIV)121/000037).
• Senate bill proposal (14)622/000103, processed in the XIV Legislature, related to financial sustainability and economic elements indirectly affecting the energy system.

3. How to interpret these data

From the point of view of your question —“parliamentary initiatives to regulate the electricity price”— several clarifications are appropriate:

• Not all initiatives deal only with electricity price. Many address broad packages of energy, fiscal, or solvency measures that include specific chapters on electricity price or the electricity bill.
• An exhaustive count of questions, PNLs, and strictly parliamentary interpellations would require a specific statistical exploitation of the initiative registry, refining search criteria (for example, all texts containing combinations of terms like “electricity,” “PVPC,” “tariffs,” “wholesale market,” etc.). The figure of 32 responds to a filtered set of clearly relevant initiatives and norms, not to that exhaustive count.
• The real political focus has been very concentrated on a few major texts (royal decree-laws and associated bills), which have articulated the regulation of the Iberian mechanism, regulated tariffs, or vulnerable consumer protection.

4. Conclusion

In summary, it can be stated that in the last legislature at least 32 relevant initiatives linked to the regulation of the electricity price and the electricity bill have been identified, of which a significant part are legislative initiatives processed in the General Courts (royal decree-laws and their validation or further processing bills) and the rest are associated executive provisions and acts. The figure provides a reliable order of magnitude on regulatory intensity in this area but does not substitute an exhaustive statistical count of all minor parliamentary initiatives (PNL, questions, interpellations) presented on the electricity price.