Opening the electricity bill is a nightmare suffered by millions of Spaniards. Surely you suffer from it and that every day you consider ways to save by reducing consumption. But one of the alternatives is not to consume less, but to pay less. For this, it is essential to make a comparison of PVPC vs free market so that you can know what the best rates are and what profit margin you could obtain by changing your provider. The time has come to pay less for electricity!
The electricity crisis is taking its toll on millions and millions of homes both in Spain and in most of the world. But as a result of this problem, something that we Spaniards are learning to do is to compare and look for better offers in the electricity supply. After many years without giving it importance, because everything was fine as it was, price increases push us to compare PVPC vs free market and see what the reality is. How can we save on the electricity bill?
The actual situation
Throughout this period in which electricity has become a headache for citizens, several changes have occurred that have made both the regulated market, also known as PVPC (Voluntary Price for Small Consumers), and the free market, have your moment of glory. The free market had a moment of great popularity due to the breath of fresh air it presented and its offers, but then, at the beginning of 2023, the regulated market counterattacked on several fronts. Both the drop in the price of electricity and the compensation for the gas cap made the PVPC rates attractive again.
In principle, the price of electricity should continue to drop in the spring and the bills should give Spaniards a rest, at least until the arrival of summer and air conditioning. In any case, that does not mean that it is not interesting to analyze what each type of rate offers to make a decision about whether to change our provider or not. To do this, we are going to teach you how to compare the rates officially with the website that the CNMC (National Commission for Markets and Competition) makes available to you.
online comparison
The process is very simple. Enter to Consumer Portal of the CNMC Energy Offers Comparator and click on “Type of supply you wish to contract”. Choose “Electricity” and click on “Start”. It is recommended that, before continuing, you go look for your last electricity bill, since there are several pieces of information that you will need next.
Now you will be before the offer comparator filter, where you can choose if the comparison will be annual or by billing period or quarter. Enter the zip code where you live and decide if you are going to upload a digitized file of your consumption or if you are going to make a manual query. In reality, it is not necessary to upload the document, but upload the data that is requested, such as a range of billing dates, the power you have contracted, peak and valley or the total consumption of the bill, among others. You can also mark whether to include additional services in the query and whether or not there is a permanence requirement.
When you have finished, click on “Continue”. In our case, so that you are up to date with the example we are giving you, we have consulted in a postal code in Aragon with a total bill consumption of 221 kWh and installation power of 3.5 kW. The next thing you will see will be a notice on the screen that will inform you about how these amounts do not include the gas cap, about which more information is provided. Click on “I have read this notice” and continue to find the offers screen.
The results
The system shows us both the price that we would have in the event that our invoice was at the PVPC regulated price and the different options available in the free market. In the first case, the invoiced amount would be 42.37 euros, while in the other list of options, different possibilities open up. For example, we can see that Endesa has several promotions with which the first invoice is really cheap, with maximum costs of between 10 and 20 euros, but those same rates would later lead us to pay much more than expected in the following months.
If we keep going down, the best option is that of Bonpreu Esclat Energía, which offers a bill of less than 47.84 euros both in the first month and in the following months, being a price valid for any client. What we can also look at is that this rate, for example, is for green energy, something that will not always happen. If we continue down the list we will see other rates and prices that, in the case of this query, vary significantly. But the conclusion that we can reach in this comparison, with dates from March to April 2023, is that the prices, rushing, are not so differentiated between the two types of market.
Making a query in the center of Madrid with the same values, the cheapest free market rates that will appear will be the following:
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Let’s Make It Easy Plan from Bonpreu Esclat Energía with a price of 0.159999 eur/kWh and a lower monthly rate of €47.84. In addition, the second position on the list is also occupied by this provider, in this case with the Night and Day Plan rate for a maximum of 48.86 euros per month.
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Connect Endesa with a consumption price of €0.144800/kWh and a monthly rate of 48.87 euros.
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Naturgy with its rates of similar cost, Per Light Use and Night Light, with a power term of €0.162897/kWh and monthly maximums of 51.05 and 51.30 euros respectively.
Is it advisable to change?
The truth is that there are differences depending on where you live, your consumption characteristics and other factors, such as the moment in which you make the query in the comparator. In the examples that we have given you, you will have seen that the margin of difference today is not radically extreme. But switching between PVPC and free market is something that will be influenced by many other factors, such as if you have some type of penalty for the change, if you have the opportunity to access a very good savings promotion or if within your needs there is a rate that is most convenient for you.
Another important factor is the way in which you consume electricity, when, with what appliances, if you use, for example, smart saving light bulbs or if you have the possibility of adjusting to the consumption by sections of the PVPC regulated market service. The best thing is to do the math, carry out an analysis of your periods of higher electrical use and check whether or not it is convenient for you to change. Spring, as we told you, is a time that is not as stressful as winter or summer, so it is possible that now you do not have as much urgency to change your rate. If you have a PVPC rate, you may now be fine with it, although there may be exceptions. In any case, good luck saving!
