- Consumers decry record-high electricity bills
- Temperatures soar as summer continues
- An average of 35% increase in electricity bills expected
Electricity consumers in Spain decry the record-high increase in electricity bills as the summer temperatures soar. Consumption during the summer increases as consumers battle the rising summer temperatures. The Spanish government says the hikes are due to the unstable prices of carbon certificates as electricity demand surges and utilities are forced to make up for demand using fossil fuels for electricity generation.
Last Wednesday, Spanish Lawmakers voted on whether to uphold the government’s move to cut Value-Added Tax (VAT) on household electricity bills from 21% to 10% and to scrap the 7% tax on power generation for at least three months. Utilities have, however, passed these costs on to the consumers resulting in a spike in electricity bills.
One of the country’s biggest consumer platforms, Facua, has said that consumers will see on average a 35% hike on their July electricity bill compared to the same month in 2020. Secretary-General Facua, Rubén Sánchez, said that “the government’s inaction is unacceptable.” Spain’s left-wing ruling coalition blamed the regulations of the European power market. The Environment Minister Teresa Ribera has written a letter to the European Union’s executive branch stressing the need to reform the bloc’s electricity market. She, however, warned that the upward trend in prices was likely to continue in the coming months.