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ARCHIVED - New gas rates rise the price of bills in Spain
Consumers of natural gas in Spain could face a price hike of up to 10%
On Friday October 1 the new regulated natural gas rates came into effect, meaning that home and business owners not only have to worry about the record-breaking electricity prices, as the new tariffs for gas will also hit their pockets hard. However, the situations could be a lot worse, as the Spanish government has applied limits to the ceiling in order to cushion the impact on consumers.
Three new gas tariff sections
- Rate 1 is designed for households that use gas for cooking and heating water. This has increased by 0.91%.
- Rate 2 includes households that also use gas for their heating systems. This has increased by 4.4%.
- Rate 3 is exclusive to businesses with a very high consumption of gas. Their price has increased by 10.6%.
Had the central government in Spain not intervened and limited the upward revision of prices of natural gas (TUR), these rates would have risen exponentially by 25.8% in the case of TUR 1, 36.1% for TUR 2 and a whopping 47.6% for TUR 3.
Among the measures approved a few weeks ago by the Government to lower the price of electricity, a rule was included that limited the rise in gas rates during the last quarter of 2021 and the first of 2022.
However, the costs are likely to be readjusted once the global cost of gas levels out, which topped out at 82.75 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) on Thursday September 30 in the Iberian Gas Market – this is an astonishing eight times higher than just a year ago.
On a positive note for general consumers, new tolls established by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) also come into force this Friday, which means that those who consume less gas ultimately pay less. In short, the regulated amount on each bill is increased while the variable term is decreased, resulting in an estimated saving of 25%, according to the CNMC given that there are currently around 1.5 million gas consumers covered by regulated tariffs in Spain.
Regulated natural gas rates
- TUR.RL1: Annual consumption of less than 5,000 kilowatt hours (kWh)
- TUR.RL2: Annual consumption between 15,000 and 50,000 kWh
- TUR.RL4: Annual consumption between 50,000 and 300,000 kWh
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