There are 16 commercial electricity supply offers available for the first quarter of this year that are cheaper than the regulated rate. However, an important part of these offers are indexed to the evolution of the wholesale market price, so they do not have the same guaranteed price during their validity, so customers must be attentive to their evolution.
The electric power commercial offers bulletin, published by the Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos (ERSE), indicates that among the 16 commercial offers that allow prices below the regulated rate, at least seven are indexed to the evolution of wholesale prices that occur in the Mibel (Iberian electricity market). In this group are the three most competitive offers in relation to the rate: Coopérnico, LuzBoa and Eni Plenitude. Other cheaper offers have some conditions and two include loyalty for a minimum period of time and are only available to new customers.
Coopérnico has the lowest offer for consumers with a couple profile without children who have a contracted power of 3.45 kVA, which allows the fortnightly option to save 39%, or 14.6 euros per month, compared to the regulated rate.
Given the instability of electricity prices in the Iberian market, which experienced a sharp rise last year, but which at the beginning of this year were below 2022 levels —especially in January when they fell below 100 euros per MW hour—, a number of retailers chose to offer prices indexed to the evolution of the wholesale market. Still, there are some standard commercial offers that are below the regulated rate.
As for natural gas, no market offer available for the first three months of the year exceeds the regulated rate, which remains the lowest, allowing a 59% discount compared to the most competitive commercial offer available. The price of natural gas was the one that rose the most in 2022, after the sanctions on Russian gas, which led the Government to allow domestic consumers and small companies to return to the regulated rate, where prices are more protected from this escalation.
For the same reason —very expensive gas— only a dual offer (electricity and natural gas) manages to be more competitive than the regulated electricity rate. It is proposed by Eni Plenitude, it is indexed to the market price and it implies loyalty.
Source: Observadora
