Today's electricity price in Spain
PVPC hour-by-hour for Tuesday, 26 May 2026. The regulated tariff (PVPC) paid by ~28 million households in Spain.
Hourly price — today
Tariff periods: P1, P2, P3… or P1 to P6?
One of the most common sources of confusion on Spanish electricity bills is the tariff periods. There isn't a single scheme — it depends on the access tariff you have contracted, which in turn depends on the contracted power and on whether you're connected to low or high voltage. There are essentially two schemes:
2.0TD tariff — Residential and small business (up to 15 kW)
The one held by ~28 million contracts in Spain (all homes and small businesses with contracted power ≤ 15 kW). It has only 3 periods:
This is the structure used in the hourly chart above. The price per kWh during peak can be 2-3 times more expensive than during off-peak, so moving heavy loads (washing machine, dishwasher, air conditioning, EV charging) to off-peak hours saves money without installing anything.
3.0TD tariff — Small business and industry (> 15 kW LV)
For companies connected on low voltage with contracted power over 15 kW (large offices, mid-size shops, industrial SMEs). It has 6 periods, with additional discrimination by season:
Bottom line: P1 is the most expensive of the year (winter and summer peaks), P6 is the cheapest (early morning and weekends). The gap between P1 and P6 can reach 5-7× the price. Companies with night shifts or weekend production save massively just by planning operations well.
6.1TD and 6.2TD tariffs — Large industry (high voltage)
Same 6 P1-P6 bands as 3.0TD, but for installations connected on high voltage: 6.1TD for 1-30 kV (mid-size industry, large warehouses) and 6.2TD for 30-72.5 kV (heavy industry). Same seasonal schedule as 3.0TD but with different tolls and charges.
Industries on 6.1TD and 6.2TD also pay for power capacity in P1-P6 separately, which penalises exceeding contracted power during peak hours. This is where industrial solar self-consumption + a smart management system (peak shaving) delivers the highest ROI: you avoid billable peak during the middle hours of the day by replacing grid demand with your own solar production.
Types of electricity tariff in Spain
First thing to know: the price shown above is the PVPC (Spain's regulated electricity tariff for small consumers), paid by roughly 35 % of Spanish households. But it's not the only option — there are three real modalities:
PVPC (regulated)
Price set by the Government hour by hour, based on the OMIE wholesale market + tolls + charges + retail margin + taxes. Changes every hour. Only available through a reference retailer (Curenergía, EnergyaXXI, etc.). No lock-in.
Free market — fixed
You pay a fixed price per kWh for 12 months with your chosen retailer. Immune to market spikes, but you also don't benefit from dips. Usually has lock-in and an early-termination penalty.
Free market — indexed
Free-market variant that does follow the wholesale price, but without the regulated component of PVPC. Tends to be cheaper at night and more expensive at peaks. Ideal if you have an EV and charge overnight.
What is a virtual battery?
The virtual battery is a service offered by some retailers (not a physical battery in your home). The solar surplus you push to the grid during the day accumulates as a monetary balance that you can use at night or in later months when your production is lower.
How it works: if your monthly bill is €80 and you've pushed €120 worth of surplus, they don't refund you €40 — that balance stays in your virtual account and is discounted on later bills (typically up to 12 months, depending on the retailer).
Important: the virtual battery does not physically store energy. It's an accounting mechanism that prevents losing the monetary value of your surplus during months when you produce more than you consume. The actual energy keeps flowing to the grid in real time.
How much do you get paid for surplus? (RD 244/2019)
Royal Decree 244/2019 regulates the simplified surplus compensation for grid-connected self-consumption installations ≤ 100 kW. The retailer subtracts from the billed amount the value of the injected surplus, with two important limits:
- The compensation can never exceed the energy amount billed (no right to a payout).
- The surplus price is agreed between client and retailer — typically the OMIE wholesale hourly price minus deviation costs (≈ 0,02 €/kWh) on an indexed tariff, or a fixed agreed price (typically 0,05–0,10 €/kWh) on a fixed tariff.
Quick estimate based on today's data: with an average PVPC of 0.139 €/kWh, surplus injected at that same hour earns approximately 0.070 €/kWh (about half, because surplus is paid at the raw wholesale price, without the tolls, charges and taxes included in PVPC).
How solar self-consumption changes things
With solar panels, during the central hours of the day you don't buy from the grid: you consume what your panels produce (direct self-consumption). That means the electricity price today — whether it's 0,06 €/kWh or 0,29 €/kWh — doesn't affect you at all during those hours. What you keep buying is the rest: what you consume at night or on cloudy days.
With the combination panels + virtual battery, in many households the electricity bill drops between 60 % and 90 %. And unlike switching retailers, the savings are independent of market price — sunlight doesn't get more expensive.
How this widget is updated
Data is fetched directly from the public API of Red Eléctrica de España (Spain's grid operator). The next day's PVPC is published between 13:00 and 14:00 mainland Spain time, when the OMIE wholesale market auction closes for D+1. The week, month and year views backfill from the official REE history — we don't store any data ourselves.
Source: Red Eléctrica de España · official OMIE wholesale market data · regulatory framework: Royal Decree 244/2019 on self-consumption.