José Manuel Soria, who was Minister of Energy in 2013 during the Government of Mariano Rajoy, stated today in the National Court that his department detected in December 2013 “that prices [of electricity] were growing at unusually high rates. ”, which motivated the ministry to request the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC) around December 10 or 11 to carry out an analysis to determine what was happening.
Soria testified this Wednesday as a witness in the trial being held against Iberdrola Generación for the alleged manipulation of the price of electricity in the last weeks of 2013, in relation to the suspension of the Cesur electricity auction in December of that year.
Soria's statement lasted 20 minutes. In it, and to questions from the prosecutor in the case, Antonio Romeral, he indicated that this “unusual increase” in electricity prices was detected because his team at the ministry followed the evolution of the sector, although he pointed out that the analysis of the causes of the increase corresponded to the supervisor.
Soria has specified that he does not remember what specific facts the ministry detected to request this analysis from the CNMC, but he has commented that the department's technicians did observe the aforementioned “unusual evolution.” “But I don't remember the reason,” he added immediately afterwards.
Asked if he had conversations with the electricity companies on that date about the situation, Soria indicated that he does not remember having spoken with the president of Iberdrola, José Ignacio Sánchez Galán, but he acknowledged that he frequently maintained contact with those responsible for those companies. He has assured that there was a fluid relationship.
The former minister has also acknowledged that he would be very surprised if he had called the attention of any manager in the sector for "different opinions", and explained that at that time it was decided not to include the tariff deficit (3.6 billion euros) in the Budgets and That gave rise to "controversies" with the electricity sector because the decision of Mariano Rajoy's Government was not liked. He has blamed the decision on his former colleague on the Council of Ministers, the head of the Treasury, Cristóbal Montoro.
In December 2013, Soria criticized the large electricity companies in an interview with the newspaper ABC in which he pointed out that there was "at least a temporal relationship" between the Government's withdrawal of financing to the electricity system of 3.6 billion euros and the increase of prices in the wholesale market.
Today he clarified that the relationship was fluid and that "it was always based on discrepancies", and added that the sector's employers' association, Unesa, appealed to all the provisions of the Ministry, "and therefore that situation of unfulfilled commitment - to not including the deficit in the 2014 budgets-- led to controversy."
Regarding the CESUR auction of December 19, 2013, which was annulled after the CNMC investigation, one of the accusations reminded Soria of his statements of December 21 of that year in which he claimed that it had been manipulated.
Today, after commenting that some quotes published do not always respond to reality, he commented that he does remember that after the non-validation of this energy auction - which serves to set prices for the following quarter - by the CNMC "atypical circumstances ", they knew in the ministry "that something strange had happened", which gave rise to him saying that he believed there was manipulation.
It should be remembered that the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 2, Ismael Moreno, sent the company and its directors to the bench in July 2022 for a crime related to the market and consumers. In an order, the judge detailed that, "to achieve" a "higher price in the electricity market", they increased the price in the offers of electrical energy corresponding to their Duero, Sil and Tajo hydraulic plants between November and December 2013.
