Electricity prices drop to their lowest since 2014

At one point, the rising cost of electricity dominated the news for quite some time.

However, electricity prices are actually falling, so you’d think that the media would want to share the positive news!

The cost of electricity during the first quarter of 2016 was approximately 15% less than for the same period of 2015.

This means that the public has paid the lowest rate since the first three months of 2014 for their electricity at home. You may have noticed that your energy bills this year are cheaper than they were a year ago if you calculate that you have used roughly the same amount.

In monetary terms, according to data and calculations by the CNMC, an average consumer has paid around 169,70 euro during the first 87 days of this year. This is in comparison to the 200,20 euro he would have paid for the same period in 2015.

The amount of money spent on electricity for the first three months of the year, of which 89,80 euro is the actual price of energy and the 45,50 euro is the fixed quota including tax, is also 15% less than the amount the average consumer spent in the last quarter of 2015.

The reduction in price is principally down to falling prices in the wholesale sector, which was particularly apparent during the first two months of 2016.

The fact that other forms of renewable energy are becoming more popular, especially wind and hydraulic power due to the weather we’ve experienced this year, also played a huge part in lowering electricity costs.

In concrete, January saw wholesaler’s prices reduce to 36,53 euro/MWh and February’s drop to 27,50 euro/MWh, compared to the 51,60 and 42,57 euro/MWh from last year.

And in 2014 electricity prices were similar at 33,62 euro/MWh in January, 17,12 euro/MWh in February and 26,67 euro/MWh in March.

Although prices fell drastically during the first two months of this year, they are expected to stay the same or fall slightly in March and register at around 30 euro/MWh.

Source: www.20minutos.es