Spain admits to EU plans to cut electricity prices need to limit gas sales to France

According to El Pais, the proposal calls for the exception until the end of the year and claims it will have little impact due to the low level of interconnection between the two countries.

Spain’s proposal to the European Commission, along with its joint plan with Portugal to lower energy prices, the so-called Iberian exception, finally considers restrictions on gas sales to France. According to El País, who has obtained documents sent to Brussels, the executive branch asked for the measure to be taken as an exception by the end of the year.

This is a restriction on the export of electricity by creating a dual price-matching system to differentiate between electricity consumed in the Iberian Peninsula and electricity exported through the Pyrenees to community markets. The initiative also aims to ensure that subsidized energy is not sold in the community market.

In this sense, this pillar of the Spanish plan comes into direct conflict with the positions of countries such as Germany and Nordic partners that are opposed to the talks, saying it affects the unification of the market, according to sources consulted by the newspaper. As far as the government is concerned, they defended little interest in improving interconnectedness with France in the past.

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The key to the joint plan is the gas price cap. Spain and Portugal have submitted a plan to the European Commission that includes capping gas prices to a maximum of 30 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh).

As Sanchez has already announced, the joint proposal, which runs until the end of December, aims to set a maximum cost for fossil plants to use the fuel. Furthermore, “it only applies to combined cycle gas-fired, coal-fired and cogeneration plants”.

To be precise, other restrictions will be added to the measure, such as those published by El País. These include “signals of zero value for connectivity with France in the export direction”.

According to El Pais, the proposal calls for the exception until the end of the year and claims it will have little impact due to the low level of interconnection between the two countries.