2023-05-05 22:27:51
Despite the energy crisis and the reduction in the regulated part of the electricity bill, the electrical system closed 2022 with a surplus. And not just any one, but the income were in 6,187 million euros higher to expenses, according to provisional data published by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC). A ‘rare bird’ for some accounts that tend to show deficits and that is explained by the injection of public money for make up for lower income derived from the measures approved by the Government to reduce the impact of energy prices in your pocket of consumers.
Los system costs last year stood at 13,897 million euros, 18% less than estimated, and the Revenues rose to 18,978 million euros, 13% above forecast. The bulk of the revenue is collects through the tolls and charges which are included in the electric bill of all consumers. The tolls are used to pay for the networks and the cost of electricity distribution, and the price is set by the CNMC; while the charges go to pay premiums for renewables (RECORE), the accumulated debt of the different deficits or the extra cost for extra-peninsular generation that corresponds to the Ministry for Ecological Transition.
But last year the Government approved, after the start of the war in Ukraine, a reduction in the remuneration for renewables of 1,800 million euros to reduce the charges by 55% and, thus, lighten the receipt. This explains most of the reduction in the costs of the electrical system, but also that the revenues from tolls and charges have been 11% lower as planned, up to a total of 10,250 million euros.
The key to the surplus is in the rest of incomeonce less relevant, but which last year added a total of 8,500 million euros, about 3,000 million euros more than expected. Among these income is the compensation for the 7% tax on electricity generation, that affects energy companies and these have an impact on consumer bills. The Government temporarily suspended this tax in June 2021, when the energy crisis began, and so it remains. But to avoid the hole in the accounts she foresaw his compensation for an equivalent amount to the reduction of that income through the budgets. This explains two contributions of 1,360 million euros and 1,917 million euros, respectively.
To this must be added the entry of more money than expected from the auctions of C02 emission rights that rise to a total of 2,027 million euros, when the forecast stood at about 1,100 million, as well as an extraordinary unforeseen credit of about 2,000 million euros approved ‘in extremis’ at the end of last year for avoid any possible imbalance in the accounts.
Cut of just 370 million
They also had a positive, albeit limited, impact on the final balance, 370.4 million paid for the power companies due to the government’s cut on the extraordinary benefits of its nuclear and hydraulic power plants due to the rise in the price of gas. He Ministry for Ecological Transition approved this measure in September 2021 with the aim of obtaining in the last quarter of that year -when gas prices had not yet approached the levels of last year- a collection of close to 2,300 million euros with the to cover the lower charges on the bill, which then were almost 90%.
But a month after approving it, with hardly any time for its application, Ribera softened it after an energetic protest by the companies by exempting from the cut those contracts with a fixed price above the 67 euros per megawatt-hour (the equivalent of a price of 20 euros megawatt-hour for gas, which is the historical average price of this raw material). As Ribera has defended, in this way it is achieved that the companies that sell that energy are obliged to sign contracts with their clients with prices that cannot exceed those 67 euros per megawatt-hour.
Two unapproved laws
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In addition, of the income due to the reduction of extraordinary income, a credit of 225 million euros to compensate for the 80% reduction in tolls for electro-intensive consumers, as well as some 187.4 million euros from the budgets to offset the measures flexibility of energy supply contracts to provide consumers with the possibility of adapting their consumption in the context of the current energy crisis. Between these three contributions, they add up to more than enough so as not to have to miss out on the two laws announced by the Vice President Teresa Ribera at the beginning of the price escalation and that if there are no changes they will remain stored in a drawer of Congress.
One of them is the norm that sought to cut the extraordinary profits of electric companies due to the rise in the prices of CO2 emission rights, and the other is what was called National Fund for the Sustainability of the Electrical System (FNSSE) that removes premiums for renewables from the electricity bill so that they are also paid for gas and oil. Between them they added one revenue forecast of 697 million euros in 2022given that the approval of the FNSSE was ‘counted on’ in the second semester and its application would be progressive over a period of five years.
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