MADRID: Spain is looking for a new way to set electricity prices after a double-digit spike at a wholesale auction threatened a painful rise in household bills, the prime minister said on Friday, a move that could hit the country’s utilities.
Spain’s competition watchdog CNMC had previously annulled the results of a quarterly auction of wholesale electricity, in which prices logged a big jump that could have translated into a 10.5 percent rise in power bills.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the government was working on a replacement for the method by which Thursday’s auction set price changes and hoped to resolve the matter before the year-end.
“The price hike that would have resulted from the auction was excessive and totally unjustified,” Rajoy told reporters in Brussels after a two-day meeting of European leaders.
A source with knowledge of the matter said Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria would present urgent measures on December 27, the last weekly cabinet meeting of the year.
Reuters
