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The Short Answer
Spain’s wholesale electricity market closed July 2026 at 104.7 euros per MWh, up 50 percent on July 2025 and the highest monthly average since early 2023, with a daily peak of 150.32 euros on 22 July. If you are on the regulated PVPC tariff, expect roughly 8 to 12 euros more per month on August and September bills. If you are on a fixed tariff, nothing changes until renewal, at which point the new price will reflect this summer. The daily price pattern has also inverted: solar output now makes 12:00 to 17:00 the cheapest window, and 21:00 to 22:00 the most expensive. Figures from OMIE market data, confirmed 31 July 2026.
Electricity is the single biggest topic in our reader mail this year: 25 messages from 15 readers, most of them about bills that crept upward without an obvious cause. This time the cause is obvious, and it lands on the August bill. Here is what happened, who it hits, and the two changes worth making this week.
What July Did
The wholesale pool (the daily auction where Spain’s electricity is priced) averaged 104.7 euros per MWh across July, against 69.59 euros in June and roughly 70 euros in July 2025. Around twenty trading days closed above 100 euros. The annual high arrived on Wednesday 22 July at 150.32 euros per MWh. Market coverage attributes the run to a specific stack: sustained heat waves driving air-conditioning demand, weak wind generation, record electricity exports to France, and gas prices pushed up by tension around the Strait of Hormuz.
None of those drivers resolved on 31 July. Absent a weather change, August pricing starts from the same conditions.
Who Feels It, and When
PVPC households feel it now. The *PVPC* — **regulated variable tariff** reprices with the wholesale market, so July’s pool average flows more or less directly into the next bill. Sector estimates put the increase at 8 to 12 euros per month for a typical household through August and September. If your contract is with the regulated arm of a major utility (Energía XXI for Endesa, Curenergía for Iberdrola) and you never actively chose a commercial plan, you are likely on PVPC.
Fixed-tariff households feel nothing yet. A fixed price holds until the contract renews. The catch arrives at renewal: offers priced off a 104-euro pool look very different from offers priced off last year’s 70. If your renewal falls between now and October, do not auto-renew without comparing.
Not sure which you are on? The tariff name appears on page one of your bill. Our guide to reading a Spanish electricity bill shows exactly where to look, and our PVPC vs fixed comparison covers which side of that trade suits which household.
The Day Has Inverted
The old rule (run appliances overnight) is dead. Midday solar output is now so large that the cheapest hours of the day fall between 12:00 and 17:00, with prices on 31 July touching 0.120 euros per kWh at 15:00. The expensive hours are the evening ramp, 21:00 to 22:00, at three times the midday rate on the same day.
For PVPC households this is the one behavioural change that actually moves the bill: washing machine, dishwasher, pool pump and car charging into the early afternoon window. Two loads a day shifted from 21:00 to 15:00 is worth several euros a month at current spreads, and the habit costs nothing.
What to Do This Week
First, confirm your tariff type, and if you are PVPC, decide deliberately whether to stay. PVPC has been the cheaper choice across most of the last two years, but a structurally higher pool narrows that gap, and heavy evening users fare worst on it. If you want a second pair of eyes on your contract, our electricity contract check does exactly that with your actual bill.
Second, if your fixed contract renews before October, diarise it now and gather one or two comparison quotes in advance. Renewal-week pricing pressure is where this summer’s spike will quietly cost fixed-tariff households money, a pattern we covered in why August bills sting.
We will keep the numbers current as the August data lands. If your bill arrives looking wrong in a way this piece does not explain, that is precisely the kind of thing we read: the quiet line on the bill is our most-reported reader topic of 2026.
