The European Commission sees “risks” in Spain’s new proposal to stop the rise in the price of electricity

The European Commission will analyze the new proposal by the Spanish Government to stop the rise in the price of electricity, but doubts that creating a “parallel market” that decouples the price of renewables and gas is a “better alternative” to the current market design, while warning that modifying the system poses “risks” to competitiveness and security of supply.

“It is not totally clear how a system with prices for the different energy sources will work in practice or if it will be a better alternative than the current design of the electricity market,” the Energy Commissioner said at a press conference. Kadri Simson, following the extraordinary meeting of the 27 Energy Ministers in Luxembourg.

The Estonian also added that “changing the current model poses risks to market predictability, competitiveness and the transition to clean energy”. “Also because the current model guarantees that supply and demand match at all times and is very important for security of supply.”

In any case, the Head of Energy of the Community Executive has ensured that Brussels will evaluate the new ideas raised by Spain and will respond to the department of the Vice President of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera.

The Spanish delegation has come to the meeting with a new document of proposals in which it proposes that the current system – in which the most expensive technology sets the price of all the others – be allowed to be replaced by another in which it is also taken into account the cost of renewable energy.

Another of the new suggestions that the Government has passed on to the EU is to set a limit on the price of tenders for electricity produced with natural gas, although this would require subsequent “compensation” in the future.

However, the new bet of Spain has been found this Tuesday with the opposition from a dozen countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordics, who are opposed to adopting far-reaching measures to deal with the rise in energy prices.

These countries published a joint statement on Monday rejecting any reform of the European electricity system. The group was initially made up of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg and Latvia, but this Tuesday Sweden and Belgium joined.

For her part, the First Vice President of the Spanish Government, Nadia Calvin, has assured that it will continue working to expand the support of the proposals presented by the Executive in Europe to cushion the escalation in energy prices.