On Tuesday 26 April the Spanish and Portuguese authorities announced an agreement with the European Commission on the setting of a cap on gas prices in view of the specificity of the Iberian peninsula within the internal energy market.
According to the agreement detailed by El País, the price of gas for power plants will be capped at 40 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), with the price set to rise to 50 euros within the next twelve months. This cap will be passed on to Spanish consumers who have a regulated tariff.
Contrary to the wishes of Madrid and Lisbon, this price will also be applied to interconnections with the rest of the European Union via France. In return, the European Commission has committed itself to closely monitoring work to increase the level of interconnection in the Iberian Peninsula, which is below 3%, compared to the 10% target set for 2020.
The agreement, the details of which have yet to be finalised, is the result of a request by the Spanish and Portuguese Prime Ministers, who had obtained recognition of an Iberian exception - high levels of renewable energy and low interconnection - in the energy field at the Spring European Council (see EUROPE 12919/1). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)