It has been a year and two months since the electric system operator, Red Eléctrica (REE), decided to implement what it has called a “reinforced operation” to cover the risk of a repeat of the blackout on April 28, 2025.
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The main operation of these anti-blackout measures consists of scheduling more combined cycle gas plants to be running in anticipation of any possible scare. This extra provision is not free. It is included in the so-called balancing services, whose cost has risen from an average of 11.5 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) in 2024 to 22.7 euros per MWh just between January and June 2026, a 97% increase. Meanwhile, in the daily market, the price has gone from an average of 170.2 euros per MWh in 2022 to 51.2 euros per MWh accumulated between January and June 2026.
All consumers have noticed this surcharge on their bills, but it is the small electricity retailers for whom this change in the system is beginning to represent a financial demand that many can no longer bear for much longer.
Two Spanish associations, the Association of Independent Energy Retailers (ACIE), the Association of Energy Retailers (Acenel), and a Portuguese one, Acemel, raised the alarm weeks ago to ask market regulators and the Government for more clarity about these costs and to be able to pass that amount on to their customers.
“It is true that the gas price surge in 2022 had a much greater financial impact, but at that time there was price transparency and it was known that the situation was temporary. Now, there is no transparency. REE does not inform the cost of balancing services until the next day, and the problem is structural,” explains Antonio Lamunio, president of ACIE.
The cost of REE’s reinforced operation amounted to 711 million euros up to May 2026
REE acknowledged in May 2026, a year after the blackout, that the extra cost of the system’s reinforced operation had reached 711 million euros.
A cost paid by all actors in the electric system, but retailers are required to pay upfront when they buy electricity in the daily market, and recovering it is very complicated since most customers have fixed-price contracts that, if they are residential, cannot be modified, and if they are industrial clients, must be negotiated to adjust the cost increase.
“Their negotiating position is complicated. Their margins are tight, between 3 and 10 euros, depending on the type of clients. If they raise the price too much, they cease to be competitive against the big companies that have more financial backing and compensate with their other businesses. Breaking a contract to sign a new one, in which a higher price can be set, also has penalties. The only option left is to try to negotiate with some industrial clients,” analyzes Borja Osta, deputy director of the energy consultancy Selectra.
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The current situation adds to the financial stress that retailers have been bearing, especially since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, and which is taking a toll on the sector. A few weeks ago, the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) warned that between 2022 and 2025, 39 retailers were disqualified for failing to meet legal requirements. This process left unpaid amounts close to 250 million euros.
The CNMC believes that entry criteria for these companies into the market must be tightened and greater guarantees are needed to ensure they have the adequate financial cushion to fulfill their function. “There is no agent in the entire electric supply chain that bears an economic, regulatory, and administrative burden comparable to that of a retailer: they advance payments, provide guarantees, assume price and default risk, and absorb every regulatory change that is approved,” points out Javier Colón, president of Acenel.
Retailers cannot pass the surcharge on to their customers with fixed contracts
The Ministry of Economic Transition has carried out nearly thirty disqualification processes in recent weeks; Holaluz’s was the most high-profile, to remove from the market those who do not meet their payment commitments. On Saturday, it disqualified Elèctrica de Montsec.
Of course, not all problems are related to balancing services. But since, despite REE’s good intentions to include renewables in voltage control, freeing themselves from the protection of combined cycle gas plants is not something an expert expects before two or three years, retailers are asking the Government to act.
“The problem with balancing services is especially problematic. Retailers have no financial instrument to cover this surcharge. It is not just about managing their treasury with more or less skill. In this case, they must bear the surcharge with their own liquidity, and that is suffocating them,” emphasizes Osta.
The new scenario is causing small retailers to sell their business, which reduces competition
The CNMC and the ministry understand the problem. “They listen to us, they are sensitive. But no one does anything,” assures Javier Colón. Among other things, because if retailers’ requests were heeded and balancing services were classified as another system cost, retail consumers would bear more burden and not, as now, where it is distributed equally among all. And increasing household bills does not seem to be on the agenda, for now.
Meanwhile, consolidation is seen as an emergency solution. “Getting rid of the business as Ignis did by selling to Enguie. It is an example of others to come. That will greatly harm competition,” warns Lamunio.
