A reduction in the tax burden on Spain’s fleet of seven commercial nuclear power plants would allow reactors to contribute to more competitive energy prices for Spanish households, the industry group Foro Nuclear said.

The Madrid-based nuclear group said the wholesale energy market price has reached an average daily value of €117.29/MWh – almost tripling in the last year – and these increases are transferred to household contracts at a rate set out in the “voluntary price for the small consumer”, or PVPC. The PVPC came into force in 2014 for determining the cost of energy on electricity bills.

The minister for ecological transition and demographic challenge, Teresa Ribera, warned that high electricity prices seen in recent weeks, and the impact they have had on both domestic and industrial consumers, will remain for the next few months.