Spain's Grid-Constraint Bill Hit €3.6 Billion in Nine Months, a Fifth of the Final Power Price

Spain's technical-constraint costs reached €3.614 billion from January to September 2026, 45% more than a year earlier, according to Red Eléctrica. Rebuilding the figure from REE's monthly price components gives €19.36 per megawatt-hour, equal to 20.3% of the average final price of €95.56/MWh. In the same months of 2024 the component was €8.72/MWh and 13.3% of the final price.

The reinforced operation REE has run since the April 2025 blackout cost less than €275 million over the nine months, under 7.6% of the bill. Most of the growth sat in constraints solved in the day-ahead schedule, which rose 86% to about €3.1 billion while real-time constraints fell 35%. REE says upward constraint energy was paid an average €204.67/MWh, 2.76 times the day-ahead mean.

At the nine-month average, a household using 300 kWh a month carries about €5.81 of constraint costs before taxes. On the regulator's figures, 17.6% of the capacity covered by its voltage-control tables was following real-time setpoints at the end of June, and penalties for voltage-control failures came to about €2.09 million in the first half.

The CNMC asked REE on 27 July to review how the cost is charged to consumers. Higher payments for the voltage-control service start on 1 November.