Spain’s free electricity

It was on April 1st, but certainly not as a joke, that Spanish electricity was set to achieve a negative cost of –0.01€/MWh for the first time. This was due to a combination of increased wind and hydro power production from recent Easter spring storms.

Carbon and gas would be minimally needed on this day, according to OMIE, the nominated electricity market operator (NEMO) for day-ahead and intraday electricity markets in the Iberian Peninsula. As we can see in this graph, the bulk of power generated per hour comes from green sources:

In March 2024, renewable sources produced 67% of all energy consumed and exported in Spain. 27% came from wind energy. Spaniards are now used to the news of electricity having a negligible cost or no cost at all over the weekends. And whilst it is true that electricity is not actually free, as you still have to pay taxes and some fixed costs, anyone buying their electricity from the price-controlled Voluntary Rate for Small Consumers (PVPC—Precio Voluntario para el Pequeño Consumidor), currently about 8 million homes and businesses or one-third of Spanish consumers, can access these incredibly inexpensive rates.

As more people become accustomed to enjoying virtually free electricity from mostly green sources on the weekends, scheduling their EV charge for those times is increasingly becoming the logical choice.

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Bravo Spain! We just went negative on Octopus Agile last weekend but it wasn’t for very long.