The Minister of Industry has developed a proposal for reforming power industry regulations so that energy director Jaime Suárez can change market prices as he sees fit. Specifically, the department, directed by José Manual Soria, sent a proposal to the Comité de Agentes del Mercado last month asking the energy director for the power to set price floors and ceilings on the wholesale power market (pool) and the ability to alter power schedules, too. This decision means that in practice the Government could influence what types of energy are sold on the wholesale market.
This measure has received head-on opposition from the power industry, which is calling it interventionist and asking for an immediate rejection.
Currently, Spain has set a price ceiling at 180.3 euros per megavolt/hour, a price that is starting to be offered to distributors. Still, with the new norm the price could surpass this level and also drop beneath the minimum, currently is set at zero euros, because the Director General of Energy would be able to set negative prices. These measures correspond to Rule 5 (for the sellers) and Rule 6 (for consumers) in the glossary of the new OMIE Market Rules sent to all operators in the power industry to review before submitting to the National Energy Commission.
The problem that the Minister has found is that the system, which prices power sales, has reached an excessively high price on several occasions.
