"A step forward", "possibly better than the current legislation, a positive assessment...". These are some of the phrases most repeated yesterday among companies in the Spanish energy sector, employers and specialists consulted by La Vanguardia. Even consumer associations, usually belligerent with the regulations on this sector, were cautious yesterday when interpreting the electricity market reform agreement reached on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers of the European union.
"The devil is in the details", pointed out some of the experts consulted for whom "the announced reform is more of an adjustment". In general, I like the basis of what has been agreed. From the big energy companies, they are celebrating that the first maximum positions have been diluted in which the most hardened ones, such as the Minister of Energy Transition, Teresa Ribera, defended the end of the marginalist market. Identified at the beginning of the crisis as the main culprit in the escalation of prices on consumer bills, it ultimately remains intact.
The sector also likes that the extraordinary measures that intervened in the market, such as, for example, the limit on gas prices agreed by Spain and Portugal, already have an expiration date: 2024. Of course, the management of the large Spanish electricity companies , Aelec, would prefer to have eliminated them, since "we believe that the limit to the income of inframarginal technologies should not be extended due to the distortions it generates in both the long-term and short-term markets", they pointed out yesterday.
With the established long-term market rules as a starting point, there is unanimity that end consumers will be shielded from the volatility of this daily market. "The agreement obliges the marketers (with exceptions) to offer fixed prices, in addition to variable ones, to consumers, so that the latter can choose between having coverage (the fixed price) and being protected against scenarios of volatility or being exposed to the market signal", explain the consulted sources.
"But no one should confuse stability with low prices. This will depend on the details, and we don't know them yet", warns Rubén Sánchez, general secretary of Facua-Consumidors en Acció. For these prices to be really affordable, the other agreed points must work. "Everything will depend on how the states apply them, just as we now see many solar panels in some and not in others. The important thing is that the consumer is no longer passive and will have more decision-making power", says Epistimi Oikonomopoulou, expert lawyer in the energy sector at Clifford Chance Paris.
The key point of the agreement were more technical issues that also convince. Encouraging long-term contracts (PPA) between companies with public coverage is a great step forward and how the State aid is finally built (the CFDs, which will not be mandatory) is another of the proposals that Aelec qualifies as " correct", since "it will be the European Commission that will ensure compliance that there are no distortions in competition", assure from the electricity giants.
Competition is also the issue that worries the gas companies. Combined cycles, companies that generate electricity from gas to cover demand not met by renewables and nuclear, remain at the current weight. "But it is key that the remuneration for this continuous availability is set on the basis of fair market prices without distorting competition with French nuclear plants or Polish coal", point out the Sedigas employer.
Renewable energies, in general, are also satisfied. "For Spain, the proposal (without knowing the details) does not differ substantially from what we already have. Everything will depend on how the states apply it", warns Jose M. González Moya, from the Association of Renewable Energies - APPA.
