The statistical body of the European Union, Eurostat, published this Friday the final price that consumers pay for their electricity bill. This is the latest report corresponding to the second half of 2025, which already includes the great blackout that Spain suffered on April 28 of last year.
According to this official data, there are already 15 out of the 27 countries that make up the EU whose final prices —not wholesale market prices— are above the rest. And that is the case of Spain, compared to more competitive and cheaper prices, as is the case in France, Portugal, the Netherlands, or Finland.
This static photograph of European institutions lowers the expectations of the Spanish Government, which to date has always maintained that our country has the cheapest energy, mainly thanks to the deployment of renewable energies.
And although renewable energies lower the price of the electricity bill —explains to Demócrata the doctor in Nuclear Physics, Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordoñez—, because in the wholesale market they are the cheapest, almost at zero cost, this casuistry is not enough, because the Spanish energy mix has to resort to synchronous energies to ensure its stability and security, leaving some renewable energies out of the wholesale market. This —he points out—, as the data shows, leads Red Eléctrica to resort to daily technical restrictions, contracting other energies, which results in the final price of electricity rising.
The price of electricity and daily restrictions
At this point in the year, with only four months elapsed, the cost of these restrictions stands at 1,531 million euros. It is estimated that the final amount will reach approximately 4,000 million euros. In 2025, the total cost was 2,413 million. In 2024, 1,225 million. The previous year, in 2023, that levy on the bill was 912 million. In 2022, 476 million; in 2021, 416 million. And the series is completed with 426 million in 2020, the year of the pandemic.
We must start from the knowledge of our electrical system and know the composition of our bill, which includes regulated tolls and charges, system costs, and taxes (such as VAT or the electricity tax). So that, even if the wholesale market pool is low, the actual bill is not, and even more so if we take into account another variable: adjusting that bill to GDP per capita, thus being a high effort for Spaniards.
In 2025, the GDP per capita of Spaniards was 30,000 euros; that of France 42,000 euros; that of Italy 35,000 euros; that of Germany 48,000 euros; that of Portugal 24,000 euros and, that of the Netherlands and Finland, 52,000 and 45,000 euros, respectively.
The Spanish wholesale market
“The Spanish wholesale market -explains this Nuclear Physicist turned Democrat-, is a market in which there are agents who buy, others who sell, with a transaction that crosses at a moment. This is how the Iberian market works, and from there a price emerges and a list of those daily operators who are going to produce, and of those who are left out.”
“But this market, this pool -he points out- is only financial and does not comply with the laws of physics so that, when it has to distribute, and for supply security, it needs synchronous energies that have not entered that market, to a large extent, because the price of renewables, being so low, leaves them out.”
“But —he analyzes—, “what happens when renewable energy is not enough, when it produces oscillations and overvoltage on our electrical system —as happened in the blackout—, or when other operators fail? It is then —he elaborates— when another type of synchronous energy has to enter by force, with more expensive plants, among other issues, because renewables have not developed their storage capacity and, in the case of solar, they only work when there is sun”.
The effect of the blackout
Hence, we now see the effect blackout on the final electricity bill, highlighting a variable measured by Eurostat that takes into account PPS (purchasing power parity). Under this prism of analysis, Spain is one of the countries in which, observing the final (average) bill price and income, qualified as low, it makes a high effort to pay the electricity bill, compared to countries such as France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, or Finland.
Javier Santacruz, economist and energy expert, also agrees with Fernández Ordoñez's diagnosis and with the latest data published by Eurostat.
“In Spain - he points out for Demócrata -, the paradox occurs that, despite the prices of our wholesale market, families and companies pay electricity bill prices that are quite high compared to our EU partners”.
To this must be added another aspect, and that is that “renewable companies are a ruin, renewable projects do not work. And that is because the price of their energy is practically zero cost, sometimes even negative, and their investments are not compensated, while banks can no longer give them guarantees.
This imbalance between the wholesale and retail market price ranges from 0 euros to up to 70 and 80 euros, because our bill includes taxes, charges, and tolls, acknowledging that the tax reduction in March has lowered the burden, but without forgetting that Spaniards continue to pay political costs on our bill, such as aid for renewables since 2012.
Reinforced programming
And with all this scenario, and with the blackout, the economic concept and reinforced programming of Red Eléctrica emerges "to avoid, precisely -he notes- another blackout, paying gas plants to be available, in case they have to start up at any time it is necessary. Plants that, given the price of the wholesale market, have not been able to enter because their prices are more expensive".
Well -Javier Santacruz maintains-, "these adjustment services end up being paid for on the electricity bill. Therefore -this economist substantiates-, it does not seem logical to continue defending that our energy is among the cheapest, because one thing is the wholesale market price and another is the retail price".
“That is why -this financial analyst urges-, greater planning by Red Eléctrica is needed. Above all, invest in storage by renewables, so that the prices of the electricity bill are truly much lower than what we are paying now and, also, that nuclear power plants are valued, as a good part of Europe is already doing”.