Regulated market gas access tolls

In October 2021, the new regulations ⁽¹⁾ on gas access tariffs and other regulated items, approved by the Spanish Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) and the Government, came into force, affecting all consumers of natural gas on the Spanish regulated market.

Changes regulated market gas bills

Effective from 1 October 2021, you will have found two major changes to your regulated market natural gas bill: the name of your access tariff or toll, and the way in which fixed and variable amounts are calculated.

1. Change of the name of the gas access tariff

As was the case with the changes to electricity tolls, which also affected regulated market electricity bills, the new regulation was accompanied by a change in the name of the gas tariff groups.

Effective 1 October, you can consult your new gas toll in your Energía XXI gas bill. The new gas access tariff for the regulated market that corresponds to you appears in the "Contract Data" - "Transport and distribution tolls" section:

These are all tolls for domestic supplies with pressures of less than 4 bars and consumption of less than or equal to 50,000 kWh per year. Regulated gas tariffs can only be arranged in these three cases. For greater consumption or higher gas pressures, you would need to resort to tariffs outside the regulated market.

2. The way in which fixed and variable amounts are calculated has changed

Access tariffs have two components that affect your gas bill:

• Fixed term: The cost of this toll depends on your annual consumption band and has a price in € per customer and month.
• Variable term: The price of the variable term depends on consumption in the previous month or billing period and has a cost in € per kWh consumed.

Am I paying more for my gas with the new tolls?

Generally speaking, the expectation is that with the regulations in force, you should see a decrease in the value of tolls in your regulated market gas bills.

In general, under the current regulations, the fixed term part will increase and the variable part will decrease, which can generate savings for domestic gas customers. However, the impact could vary and will depend on each particular case.

Changes in the gas year or gas cycle

The review of the annual gas consumption for each consumer (or supply point) is performed once a year and serves to calculate your annual consumption band and thus determine the gas tolls you will be required to pay during the next cycle.

Previously, the gas year or gas cycle coincided with the calendar year, i.e., from 1 January to 31 December. To avoid two types of gas tolls overlapping simultaneously as a result of the regulatory changes, under the new regulations, the gas year will begin on 1 October and end on 30 September the following year. 

How is my bill affected by the change in the gas cycle? 

As gas meters are still checked manually and in person, it is only possible to establish your actual consumption when the distribution company reads the meters and reports this reading to us.

This is how we calculate your actual monthly and annual gas consumption. Each month we are informed of your gas consumption to issue the bill corresponding to your billing period. Furthermore, your total consumption is reviewed annually to correctly adjust your toll.

Under the new regulations, this calculation will be performed in October rather than in January, meaning it will affect your gas bill in the following months, when the tolls will be updated in case of any change to your annual consumption band.

Other changes to your Energía XXI gas bill

With the new access toll or tariff regulations, you will also see a new term in your bill, known as the gas system charges.

Previously, all these costs were included within the regulated market access tolls or gas access tariffs. However, pursuant to EU regulations, reflected in European Commission Regulation 2017/460 starting 1 October 2021, tolls and charges must be broken down depending on the nature of each amount.

Differences between tolls and charges on your Energía XXI gas bill

Both tolls and gas charges are intended to fund the maintenance of the entire Spanish piped natural gas network. However, charges and tolls can be differentiated depending on the nature of the amount collected.

Gas tolls:

• Tariffs for accessing the transport network and local gas networks: For the maintenance and renovation of the pipeline system, gas pipelines and external connections.
• Access fee to underground natural gas storage facilities: pay for underground storage tanks to ensure a constant supply of gas to users.
• Access tariff to regasification installations: pays the plants that safely transform LNG (liquefied natural gas) back to gas. There is a certain part of the gas we consume that arrives in Spain in a liquid state and must be regasified before it can be transferred to the general transport network.

Gas charges:

• Charges corresponding to the CNMC's ecological transition rate.
• Charges corresponding to temporary misalignments.

These charges aim to prevent misalignments between actual costs and revenues obtained from the use of the national gas network facilities.

Although sometimes, income may exceed expenses, charges are never negative (to be refunded to the user). In this case, the surplus is saved to prevent possible future misalignments that occur within the national gas network.

When were the changes applied to Energía XXI gas invoices?

The Energía XXI gas bill reflects the new charges and access tariffs established by the regulations in force since 1 October 2021.

(1) The regulations that came into force on 1 October are: Spanish Markets and Competition Commission Circular 6/2020 of 22 July and Order TED/902/2020 of 25 September amending Order ITC/1660/2009, of 22 June, which establishes the methodology for calculating the last resort natural gas tariff, adapting it to the new gas system toll structure.