The CNMC relaxes the requirements for electricity marketers to avoid bankruptcies

The National Commission of the Markets has approved this Monday to lower the financial demands that it requires of the electric power marketers in the face of the tension that the high prices of energy are exerting on the treasury of this type of company.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
26 September 2022 Monday 06:40
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The CNMC relaxes the requirements for electricity marketers to avoid bankruptcies

The National Commission of the Markets has approved this Monday to lower the financial demands that it requires of the electric power marketers in the face of the tension that the high prices of energy are exerting on the treasury of this type of company.

According to current legislation, marketers pay in advance for the light they acquire from producers to later resell it to their customers. In addition, to guarantee the security of supply to these end customers, competition laws oblige them to contribute a series of economic amounts that are linked to the total energy they sell.

With the escalation of energy prices, these economic amounts have skyrocketed and around fifty marketing companies have gone bankrupt due to the impossibility of maintaining a correct balance between the money advanced and that subsequently charged to their clients.

Specifically, the regulator has given the green light to a procedure that will reduce the guarantees that must be presented to the system operator -Red Eléctrica de España- and will simplify the procedures.

In this way, it is avoided to request some daily monitoring guarantees when the monthly requirement is already met and the intra-monthly additional operation guarantee is eliminated once the procedures approved by the Resolution of August 8, 2022 of the Secretary of State for Energy, reported the agency.

The calculation of monthly energy is also modified for the purposes of calculating guarantees, so that in both cases the most up-to-date consumption information available at any given time is used.

In the last twelve months, the body chaired by Cani Fernández has adopted several resolutions in this regard aimed at reducing the impact of the current context of high electricity prices on the economic solvency of these companies.

In this regard, on November 11 last year, a resolution was adopted modifying the rules of the daily and intraday markets and incorporating a mechanism for advance payment, prior to the issuance of weekly settlements, which allows marketers who buy energy on the market release their payment obligations before the due date of the bills.