Electricity prices at the weekend in Spain
On Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays every hour is off-peak. Here is how much difference that makes, and at what times.
Over the last eight weeks, from 22 August to 17 October, a PVPC kWh has cost on average 0.188 €/kWh including taxes on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays, against 0.252 €/kWh on weekdays: 0.064 €/kWh less per kWh. The main reason is regulatory. CNMC Circular 3/2020 puts all 24 hours of those days in the off-peak band, so energy pays neither peak tolls and charges (0.0976 €/kWh per kWh) nor standard ones (0.0293 €/kWh), only off-peak ones (0.0033 €/kWh). On top of that, demand drops and the market is often cheaper. The advantage is not the same at every hour: it is large in the evening and at night, when a weekday would be at peak, and small in the early morning, which is off-peak anyway. The mini calculator compares a given hour on weekdays and weekends using the real profiles of the last 28 days.
Is it worth leaving the laundry for the weekend?
Yearly saving at the weekend
€33.20
| Weekday at 20:00 (average of 19 days) | 0.473 €/kWh |
| Weekend at 20:00 (9 days) | 0.345 €/kWh |
| Difference per kWh | 0.128 €/kWh |
| Energy per year | 260 kWh |
Hour-by-hour PVPC averages with taxes over the last 28 days.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Why the weekend is off-peak
CNMC Circular 3/2020, which set the 2.0TD tariff periods in 2021, treats every hour of Saturdays, Sundays and fixed-date national holidays as off-peak. The reason is technical: demand falls on those days and the networks have spare capacity, so there is no case for charging them the toll of the busiest hours. The Ministry’s charges follow the same structure.
On the PVPC this shows up directly in each hour’s price. On a Tuesday at 8 pm, energy carries 0.0976 €/kWh of tolls and charges per kWh; on a Saturday at the same time, 0.0033 €/kWh. Before tax the gap is 0.0943 €/kWh, and with electricity tax and VAT it gets close to 0.1199 €/kWh, even if the market cost exactly the same on both days.
What the last few weeks show
| Type of day | Average price with taxes | Energy period |
|---|---|---|
| Weekdays | 0.252 €/kWh | peak, standard and off-peak |
| Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays | 0.188 €/kWh | off-peak all 24 hours |
| Difference | 0.064 €/kWh |
That is an average over all hours. Hour by hour the gap varies a lot, and the mini calculator above works it out for the hour you pick with the averages of the last 28 days: the weekday profile shows the morning and evening peaks, while the weekend one is much flatter.
Which jobs are worth saving for Saturday
The power-hungry ones that are not urgent: laundry, the tumble dryer, a full dishwasher, batch cooking in the oven, ironing. Car charging too, if you do not need the car sooner. What does not pay is changing early-morning habits: those hours are already off-peak on weekdays and the difference comes down to the market.
To fine-tune, the cheapest hours page gives the best slot of every day, weekends included, and the washing machine page prices a wash at each hour. Month-by-month differences are in the history.
Bank holidays and 12 October
A fixed-date national holiday that falls on a weekday is billed like a Sunday: off-peak all day. That is what happened on Monday 12 October 2026. Extra days off added by regions or town halls, by contrast, change nothing on the bill: for the electricity tariff they are working days. Circular 3/2020 only counts 6 January and the non-substitutable fixed-date national holidays in the official public-holiday calendar: in 2026, 1 November and 6 December fall on a Sunday, and the Mondays 2 November and 7 December that some regions declare are billed as working days. The time-of-use periods guide has the full list of holidays that count.
When the weekend is not cheaper
The off-peak advantage covers tolls and charges, not the market. A Saturday with little wind and heavy cloud, or with high gas prices across Europe, can carry a market price high enough to cancel it out, especially in the evening. That is why the table for each day is worth a glance before you plan around the weekend: the rule of thumb holds on average, as the eight-week figures above show, but not every single weekend. The today’s price page and the tomorrow’s price page give the exact answer for the two days ahead.
A second caveat is the appliance itself. Moving a wash from 21:00 on a Wednesday to 21:00 on a Saturday saves the peak toll; moving it from 03:00 on a Wednesday to 03:00 on a Saturday saves almost nothing, because both hours were already off-peak. The mini calculator at the top shows exactly that for any hour you pick.