The daily price of the Spanish wholesale market (POOL) this month, up to 19 April, stood at €64.05/MWh. This is 28.35% lower than in March and 66.6% lower than a year ago.
The 34.6% increase in photovoltaic production, together with the low demand for energy due to Easter and the containment in the price of gas, have led to the collapse of prices in the central hours of the day. Price volatility has been extreme in this first fortnight. On many days, during the hours of maximum solar radiation, prices have been close to zero, but have exceeded €100/MWh during peak hours.
At certain times, photovoltaic generation has registered production peaks of more than 14,500 MWh, which have come to satisfy more than half of the demand. So far in April, photovoltaic is third in the electricity mix, with a production of 2,091 GWh, behind only wind (3,190 GWh) and nuclear (2,909 GWh). It also doubles the generation of combined cycle gas plants (965 GWh), whose activity has fallen by 29.8%.
Since September 2022, demand data has been hitting record lows month after month. In April, REE data showed an average daily demand of 541,778 MWh, with a drop of 13.5% compared to last year due to the effect of Easter, high temperatures and low industrial activity. Over the last twelve months, general electricity demand has fallen by 3.3%, dragged down by the 10.3% drop in industrial demand.
