In this month of December, Social Security allocated the record figure of 12,120.8 million euros to the payment of the ordinary monthly payroll of contributory pensions, almost 10.8% more than in the same month of 2022, as reported by this Tuesday the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

The ordinary monthly pension payroll exceeded 12,000 million euros for the first time in July and this month it once again sets a new record.

The Department led by Elma Saiz estimates that pension spending stood at 11.5% of GDP in the last twelve months, below that of 2022 (11.7% of GDP), 2021 (12.1% of GDP) and 2020 (12.4% of GDP), a year conditioned by the impact of the pandemic on GDP.

In December of this year, 10,111,991 contributory pensions were paid, almost 1.2% more than a year ago, to just over 9.15 million pensioners.

The average pension rises 9.4%

After the increase in pensions with the CPI applied since the beginning of the year, the average retirement pension increased by 9.4% year-on-year in December, to 1,378.4 euros per month.

For its part, the average pension of the system, which includes the different types of pension (retirement, permanent disability, widowhood, orphanhood and for family members), increased by 9.5% year-on-year, reaching December 1 of this year at 1,198.65 euros per month.

The Government will approve this Wednesday the new decree to alleviate the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine. He will do it on the horn, since the current one expires on December 31. In fact, PSOE and Sumar are still negotiating the package at this time, in which it is expected that the bulk of the measures that have been applied until now will be extended, such as discounts on transport or the prohibition of evictions of vulnerable families without alternative. On the contrary, the withdrawal of some of the proposals that cost the public coffers the most is expected, since Europe has already begun to ask for spending restraint.

As usual, the Executive is keeping its cards with the utmost discretion. In all likelihood, it will be President Pedro Sánchez who will present the new decree this Wednesday, after the Council of Ministers has held. It is a situation similar to what occurred last year, when he announced the package of measures at the same time that he made an annual assessment of his Government's actions.. Then, the head of the Executive and the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, closed the last threads with a meeting in Moncloa -with a photo included-, since it was not until these last few days that the negotiations have intensified. In this sense, throughout this Tuesday, the vice presidencies have been exchanging documents and proposals.

Unlike 2023, Podemos is no longer part of the Council of Ministers and it is the first large-scale decree of the new PSOE and Sumar Government since the investiture was held in mid-November.. In the speech that the president gave then, Sánchez anticipated that free public transport for young people and the unemployed would be extended from January 1. In addition, he also pointed out that the VAT reduction would be extended to 4% for basic foodstuffs and the reduction from 10% to 5% for oil and pasta.

According to what Sumar sources have told Europa Press, those from Díaz have managed to extend the rule that states that companies that fire workers alleging causes such as the rise in energy costs will be obliged to return the aid they have received from the State.. This idea was included in the proposals that Sumar made public last Monday, as an exercise of pressure on the socialists and in which, basically, they asked to maintain the vast majority of the aid that expires on December 31. The main of the new measures that Sumar claimed to include in the decree was the automatic extension of all rental contracts that expire in the next six months, a rule that was in force until last June and that the PSOE said was “above table”.

It is the same answer that was given weeks ago when asked about another of the measures included in the package and that, finally, will be included: the one that prohibits the evictions of vulnerable families without a housing alternative.. This point is included in the housing law approved in the last legislature, although the mechanisms still need to be developed to, as stated in the articles, “provide response and support, in coordination with social services and third sector entities, to people and families with fewer resources, avoiding evictions in vulnerable situations”. That is why the Government has agreed to include it and has left its 'sale' to EH Bildu, which has claimed victory.

The package that will be approved this Wednesday will be the eighth since the conflict began in Ukraine and the cost to the public coffers already amounts to 47 billion euros. Furthermore, Europe has already begun to call for spending restraint, so some measures will either be cut or eliminated. In fact, the Treasury has already been preparing the ground for the withdrawal of some. “The EU has been advising to withdraw stimulus measures,” recalled the fourth vice president, María Jesús Montero, at the end of last week. On the wire are the reductions in the special tax on electricity and VAT. However, the intention of the PSOE is to “squeeze the fiscal margin to the last euro.”

Free and discounted transportation

Regarding measures related to transportation, public or private, it is expected that this Wednesday's decree confirms the announcements that Sánchez already made during his inauguration session that as of January 1, public transportation will be free for those over 65 years and unemployed. However, communities like Madrid are still waiting for some concrete conclusion regarding the reduction in the price of transport passes for the rest of the population, to which the Government contributes 30% and regional governments such as Madrid, with another 30%. Also up in the air is the availability of free passes for medium-distance trains.

In private transport, nine months after the entry into force of the discount of 20 cents per liter of gasoline or diesel for all drivers, there is only a reduction of 5 cents per liter from which only professional transporters and the agricultural sector. Extending this aid, already very residual, is another of the decisions that have to be made this Wednesday, in a context in which fuel prices are below what they were before the war in Ukraine began.

Measures on the price of electricity

In the field of energy, one of the big unknowns is whether the Government will extend the cap of 67 euros/Mwh that has existed since 2021 for electricity contracts and that in 2022, in the midst of the energy crisis, it extended to consumers with fixed contracts. a rule by which electricity companies that sign new supply contracts to consumers or renew them will not be able to set a price that exceeds 67 euros. The difference with the real cost is assumed by the electricity companies, reducing their profits.

This reduction of 67 euros was a way to limit the excessive profits of the electricity companies and, like the Iberian mechanism, it will also decline on December 31 if there is no decision by the Government to extend it. Although against this limit and pointing out that it is the strictest of those applied in other EU countries, the sector is considering that perhaps the Government will decide to maintain it next year.. Something that will not happen with the other limit on the price of electricity, the one set by the Iberian mechanism that will not extend beyond the end of the year after Brussels rejected such a possibility.

With regard to the super-reduced VAT on gas and electricity, everything indicates that the Government will opt for an intermediate solution between maintaining the super-reduced rate of 5% or returning it to the 21% before the energy crisis.. The first possibility has been losing steam with the stabilization of electricity prices and the other would mean a sudden increase in the electricity bill that is difficult to assume when inflation is still much higher than usual, so it appears to be possible. the option to raise it progressively.

It also remains to be seen what decision the Government makes regarding other tax cuts to alleviate the cost of energy for homes: the reduction of VAT to 5% also for pellets and wood, the reduction to the minimum allowed of the Special Tax on Electricity, which is currently taxed at 0.5%, as well as the suspension of the tax on the value of the production of electrical energy. All of these measures will also expire on December 31 if the Government does not decide otherwise in this Wednesday's decree.

Something that does not exactly end with the end of the year but on which there could also be modifications are the new taxes on banks and energy companies that were created last year, also to limit excessive profits due to energy prices and rise in interest rates. The EU agreed to a general framework for what it called a “solidarity contribution” – at least 33% of the profits of these companies – but left room for each government to adopt equivalent measures.. This is what eight countries did, including Spain, which according to a report from the European Commission is the country with the most particularities in the application of a new rate that in principle was only for energy companies. On the one hand, the Government decided to also extend it to banking. Furthermore, the Spanish tax is the only one that taxes -at 1.2%- the net turnover of companies.. Only like Belgium, Portugal and Hungary, it chose to apply it in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years.

In this way, next year the tax accrued in 2023 will still be collected but the decision remains whether to maintain it, reduce it or modify it in 2024, on which it will depend whether income is collected for this concept in 2025.. A few weeks ago, at COP28, the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, opened up to reviewing it, taking into account that the drop in energy prices has also evaporated the “extraordinary profits” of companies in this sector. The possibility of linking it to investment in renewable energies to promote the energy transition was even suggested.

The fixed part of the cost of electricity for homes and small businesses will be slightly more expensive from January 1 in the central hours of the day, between 10 in the morning and two in the afternoon and between six and ten in the afternoon. at night because in that section – in the so-called “peak hour” – the fixed term of the bill will increase, which includes the use of the electrical grid. The National Competition Market Commission (CNMC) has just published the prices of access tolls to the electricity transport and distribution networks for next year, which rise during peak hours but decrease slightly during peak hours. “valley”, the cheapest, and “llana”, intermediate.

Waiting to know this Wednesday the Government's decision on whether to keep the VAT on electricity at a minimum or begin to raise it, the CNMC has updated – upwards or downwards, depending on the case – the other fixed term of the invoice. that of taxes, that of tolls, which has to do with the use of electricity transportation and distribution networks.

As published by the Official State Gazette (BOE) this Monday, the modification that will come into force on January 1, 2024 will mean a slight increase in the fixed cost for using the networks in the central hours of the day, those in which the electricity is on. more expensive because there is greater demand.

More expensive at the most expensive times

For homes, small businesses or businesses, whose consumption does not exceed 15 kilowatts, the review of tolls for 2024 raises them both in terms of energy and in terms of contracted power during peak hours, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. from 6 to 10 p.m. from Monday to Friday. The energy term of the transport and distribution toll will be 0.0033 euros/kWh, 0.003 more than in 2023. The contracted power term of the transmission and distribution toll will be 22,401 euros/kWh starting in January, 0.008 more than in 2023.

Faced with this slight increase, the new year will bring a slight drop in tolls in flat and off-peak hours, as well as on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, in which off-peak time – the cheapest – is applied during the 24 hours.

For the flat period – from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to midnight -, the energy term of the transport and distribution toll will be 0.019 euros/kWh, 0.0006 less than this year; the contracted power term, 22.401 euros/kWh, 0.008 less. For off-peak hours -from 00 to 8 hours-, the toll for energy term will be reduced by 0.0004 euros/kWh, to 0.000557 and the contracted power toll will be 0.776 euros/kWh, 0.37 euros in 2024. less than in 2023.

In general terms and taking into account all types of consumers, in 2024 network access tolls will be reduced by an average of 1.1% compared to 2023, the CNMC has indicated in a note, in which it differentiates between low voltage consumers -2.0TD, domestic, and 3.0TD), in which they are maintained, and are reduced for those connected to high voltage.

The review for 2024 follows the guidelines set in 2019, when the three types of time periods were created that for the moment will not be modified despite requests from the renewable sector to modify the most expensive and cheapest hours of electricity, given that In central hours there is now more electricity supply than before to satisfy greater demand, thanks to renewables, particularly photovoltaic energy. The sector proposed that the most economical hours be from 12 to 16 hours, instead of at night, and a few months ago, the CNMC opened up to studying the possibility of making some reform, which does not appear in its resolution on the price of tolls for 2024.

Electrical grid planning

These fixed charges on the bill are intended to contribute to the maintenance of electricity transportation and distribution networks, which have been under increasing pressure in recent years due to the increase in electricity generation – and therefore, evacuation and transportation – that has course the growth of renewable energies, which should be even greater in the coming years, in compliance with the new National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan.

In this sense, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition has just launched a public consultation to plan the development of the electric energy transmission network until 2030.. Until March 24, autonomous communities, companies in the sector and other interested parties can send their forecasts and demands to update the current planning that extends until 2026 and does not take into account the Government's plans to boost electricity generation with renewable energies until 48% on the final use of energy and have 19 gigawatts of self-consumption and 22 of storage and 11 gigawatts of green hydrogen, so that by 2030 renewable energies will contribute 81 of electricity generation compared to 74% of the PNIEC now in force.

“To achieve these objectives of both renewable penetration and strong electrification of demand, a new design and planning of the electrical energy transport network is necessary that allows not only the much-deserved renewable integration but also structures a network capable of supplying a demand that will be especially intense and localized in uses such as the decarbonization of existing industry, the production of green hydrogen or the recharging of electric vehicles,” explains the Ministry at the opening of the public consultation.

In the last two years, solar panels have multiplied on the roofs of Spanish single-family homes but collective self-consumption, for example, for blocks of flats, has not yet taken off.. An alternative to this difficulty could be a new type of self-consumption that is trying to open in Spain. These are plug-in solar panels, which can be installed on balconies. They are already very common in Austria, Germany and Italy and now they are looking for their place here, now with the support of the reform of the European electricity market, which asks countries to regulate them and create special electricity rates for surpluses.. On the contrary, experts warn that its low power could not only not be useful, but could be counterproductive for 'classic' self-consumption.

Plug-in photovoltaic panels are a reality in central European countries but still a rarity in Spain. The reform of the electricity market that was closed a few weeks ago in the EU could give them a boost if governments, including the Spanish one, obey one of its provisions, which indicates that “they can promote the introduction of mini plug-in solar systems with capacity up to 800 watts on or inside buildings.”

This request was introduced at the last minute by the European Parliament in the final negotiation with the Member States and is due to an express request made by the Greens group, although it was limited to an invitation to countries like Spain, which do not have a regulation for this type of devices. The initial intention of the European Parliament was that, more than a possibility or an option, the impulse was an obligation.

As agreed in the end, the EU considers that plug-in solar panels are a system that “together with others and other technologies, could contribute to increasing the consumption of renewable energy and its commitment to the energy transition”. For this reason, governments should alleviate administrative and technical burdens and regulatory authorities should offer rates for the injection into the network of the electricity generated by these plug-in panels and a methodology to calculate them, even pointing out that “depending on the situation of each Member State “, these rates should be “very low or even zero.”

Low power, self-installable and for the balcony

The technical ease or especially low electricity rates to operate these devices plugged into the network is something that does not exist in Spain.. This is confirmed by EET, an Austrian company that recently arrived in the Spanish market.. The equipment it distributes is “low power”, with a maximum of 800 watts and consists of one or two solar panels – each of 370 watts – and one or two inverters of 300 or up to 600 watts of power to convert direct current. generated by the panels in alternating current, which is used in homes.

The panels can be plugged into power from a domestic outlet, are “self-installable”, that is, they do not need a professional, and can be installed on the balcony, a garden, a wall or any other place where it receives sunlight, with the best guidance possible. The cost of these devices ranges between 700 and 1,000 euros.

Last year, EET sold 17,570 kits in the countries where it has been operating for years – Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland – and where it notes a “growing importance” of plug-in panels as a good alternative to roof tiles. For people who typically live in multi-story buildings that don't have as much space or are looking for more affordable devices. The sale of these kits also in Spain is the previous step to begin marketing its “star product” this spring, a storage unit for plug-in panels.

Most cumbersome process in Spain

From its still incipient experience in Spain, this company notes some particularities that are very much in line with the request included in the reform of the EU electricity market for governments to facilitate plug-in solar panels.. “Spain stands out from the other countries where we are active for having the majority of regulations for these installations, which are actually so loved for being so simple for the end customer,” says EET after analyzing the requirements for installing plug-in solar panels in the different markets in which it is present.

As explained by the company, here it is much more cumbersome than in other countries, because it is necessary to “legalize the installation” by obtaining a specific Electrical Installation Certificate, which requires that an authorized technician come to verify the installation.. On the contrary, in Austria it is not necessary to do this procedure if the device does not exceed 800 watts of power and it is enough to inform the electricity distributor through its website or by email that this type of plates has been installed.. Those who live in apartment buildings also have to consult with the administrator to install them due to changes in the external appearance of the property.

Germany has a very similar system and you only have to notify the plate to the electricity company and include it in the Central Market Data Registry. Something similar also happens in Italy, where there is a “single registration” that can also be done online.

According to the EET comparison, in Spain it is also necessary to install – with an authorized technician – a device to prevent the discharge of surpluses into the network, something that is not necessary in Germany, Austria or Italy, also because there are usually no surpluses. on these low power boards.

Discourage self-consumption

Precisely the low power of these plug-in plates is one of the elements that raises the distrust of some experts in this solution, who believe that it could frustrate the expectations of those who install them in their homes and, with this, extend this disappointment to all self-consumption. .

“They have very little power and are quite inefficient,” warns Raquel Paule, president of the Renovables Foundation, on whom a good part of Sumar's environment and energy program for the 23J elections rested.. “We continue to focus on the typical self-consumption of roof tiles, it is much more efficient.”

Paule explains that the problem with them is that 800 watts “does practically nothing”, compared to the 2000 watts that are usually installed on roofs to cover only part of the electrical demand of homes.. For this reason, he believes that plug-in plates do not even make a “big difference” in the bill in terms of savings and can be “negative” and “lead to error”, that users “expect one thing and find another and conclude that everything “self-consumption is not worth it”. Instead, it is committed to promoting energy communities and collective self-consumption, so that people who live in apartment blocks with poorly oriented roofs or where they do not have space can use it.. For this reason, he believes that solutions such as plug-in plates are “patches” that “have a negative rebound effect” on self-consumption.

Despite these misgivings, the inclusion of plug-in solar panels of up to 800 watts in the new EU electricity market is seen as one more element in a package aimed at making life easier – and cheaper – for the consumer.. This is how the European Parliament's rapporteur for the reform, Nicolás González Casares, sees it, who was the one who received the request from the Greens to include them, who sought agreement between the groups so that it would be part of his mandate and who later fought with the governments so that, although attenuated, the final text would include an invitation to Member States to facilitate its implementation, with special rates that could even be zero euros.

In that final negotiation, Parliament also managed to “go further” in the right to share self-produced energy, which if combined with differentiated contracts – which will allow the consumer to have several depending on what they are going to use the electricity for -, with The generalization of dynamic rates -instead of a fixed price- or with the support to make demand more flexible will allow each household to take advantage of the option that best suits them.