As of June 1st of this year, a new billing methodology for tolls and charges on electricity bills will be established. Therefore, all domestic users will have a three-period hourly discrimination in terms of tolls and charges on their electricity bills, as reflected in the BOE in the circular from the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC).
What are the most important changes?
Part of the price we pay for energy is paid to the companies responsible for transport and distribution and to other concepts related to electricity such as the tariff deficit, remuneration for renewable and efficient generation or the costs of non-peninsular territories. The percentage that is due to them is calculated according to what are called access tolls and charges . Until now, at the domestic level, most customers were charged the 2.0A toll, which corresponds to an approximately equal price during all hours of the day. Others, on the other hand, had the 2.0DHA or 2.0DHS toll, specified for contracts with a Time Discrimination tariff (hence the acronym DHA).
However, from June 1st, these three access modalities will be combined into a single one called 2.0DT, which has two terms for contracted power and three terms for energy used in the domestic sector, depending on the day of the week and the time of day. With this new distribution, weekdays (from Monday to Friday) will have 6 different time slots, while Sundays and holidays will have the same all day. Keeping track of which hours of the day are more expensive or cheaper for energy use will be quite a challenge.
Therefore, in the energy term there will be 3 time periods, from most expensive to cheapest: Peak (P1), Flat (P2) and Valley (P3).
The time distribution will be as follows:
The contracted power will also have a different price depending on the hours of the day , but in this case it will be with only two periods, a more expensive one corresponding to the hours of P1 and P2 of the energy term and a cheaper one corresponding to the hours of P3.
Will any additional procedures need to be carried out?
No. The new rates will begin to be applied from June 1st automatically in all retailers.
However, since domestic users will be billed for two terms of power, we can choose to have two different contracted powers. Therefore, it will be interesting to know at what time of day we use the most powerful household appliances and be able to adapt the contracted power to these times.
What will be the prices for each period and power term?
The prices corresponding to each access toll and charge (both power and energy) for each time period are shown below:.
| Period | Power (€/kW/year) | Energy (€/kWh) |
| P1 – Peak | 30,6727 | 0,133118 |
| P2 – Plan | 0,041772 | |
| P3 – Valley | 1,42436 | 0,006001 |
But be careful, tolls and charges will represent around 40% of the bill. Therefore, to these prices you will need to add marketing margins, the cost of energy, electricity tax and VAT.
And what will I pay on the bill?
All these changes correspond to the access tolls and charges that the marketer pays to the distributor, but this does not mean that your rate will be governed by these times. In the case of the regulated market, this will be the case, but in the free market they may offer other types of rates that follow different time periods.
Furthermore, in the regulated market the cost of energy is variable. To find out what you will pay, you can check here every day at 8pm the prices for each hour of the following day .
What can I do to save costs?
To save money in this new billing method, you can follow these recommendations:
- Use energy in the valley and flat periods, but avoid intensive use in the peak period as it is considerably more expensive.
- Contract the power levels that suit your needs. If you are in the regulated market, they make it easy for you, since each bill will indicate the maximum power you have reached in the previous months. During 1 year, you will have the option of making two power changes for free.
- If you have electric radiators that work with heat accumulation, take advantage of the night to charge them. And if you have a thermoelectric for hot water, you can also turn it on only during the most economical time slots.
- Remember that the whole weekend is off-peak hours! It will be a good time to cook for the week or do the laundry.
More information
- Methodology for calculating tolls and charges.
- Costs of access tolls.
- Costs of charges.
- Electricity invoice model in regulated market.
