Electricity price in Spain by quarter hour
The wholesale market has set a price every 15 minutes since October 2025. The PVPC bill is still hourly: this page shows both.
Today, 17 October, Spain’s day-ahead market set 96 prices, one per quarter hour, averaging 107.15 €/MWh, or 0.1072 € per kWh before tolls, charges, retail margin and taxes. Within a single hour the price can move a lot: today the widest swing is between 17:00 and 18:00, with 91.28 €/MWh between the dearest and cheapest quarter. None of that reaches PVPC customers’ bills, because Red Eléctrica still publishes 24 hourly prices and household meters record by the hour. It does matter for some indexed market deals, and it helps explain why an hour’s price is what it is. The red line on the chart is each hour’s PVPC, before tax, so you can see at a glance how far the regulated tariff sits above the raw wholesale price at each moment of the day.
Market average, 17 October 2026
107.15 €/MWh
0.1072 €/kWh wholesale
| Cheapest quarter (12:30) | 0.99 €/MWh |
| Most expensive quarter (00:00) | 212.04 €/MWh |
| Biggest swing within one hour (17:00) | 91.28 €/MWh |
| Quarters published | 96 |
Assumptions
REData “Precio mercado spot” series (Red Eléctrica). The PVPC is not billed by quarter: household meters record hourly and the PVPC energy term has 24 prices a day. Method and sources
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
From quarter hour to hour
The European day-ahead market, where next-day energy is bought, has worked in 15-minute periods since October 2025. For the PVPC, Red Eléctrica carries that result over to each hour and adds the other components set by Royal Decree 216/2014. Today the market averages 107.15 €/MWh and the PVPC energy term, still before tax, 144.32 €/MWh: the gap is forward products, balancing and the regulated part.
Who this page is for
People on indexed market tariffs that pass through the hourly or quarter-hour price, and anyone who wants to understand why an hour’s PVPC goes up or down. If you are on the PVPC, the useful page is today’s electricity price, with the 24 prices you pay; and if you are weighing a switch to a fixed price, the PVPC versus fixed price comparison does the sums with tax.