Barcelona City Council will pay 44.75% more this year to Barcelona Energia, the public marketer that it launched in 2018. This is established in an agreement approved by the government commission chaired by the mayor, Ada Colau, and which last Friday was published in the Municipal Gaseta.
Municipal sources specify that the amount that will be paid to the marketer for the services it provides to the City Council and its public companies will amount to 47.16 million euros, compared to 32.57 million in 2021.
The aforementioned sources emphasize that, in any case, this growth is much lower than the rise in the price of electricity in the wholesale market. In 2021, the average price per megawatt-hour (MWh) stood at an average of 111.93 euros, and so far in 2022, this amount has risen to 217.7 euros, 91.82% more.
The government team frames its decision in the changes that the sector has experienced in an international context marked by Covid-19 and the consequences of the Russian aggression on Ukraine.
Barcelona Energia was born from the hand of the City Council and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area through Tractament i Selecció de Residus (Tersa), a public group focused on the circular economy, waste management and the production of renewable energy.
Since then, several metropolitan city councils have been joining the project and, starting in the second quarter of 2022, the marketer will offer its service to four more consistories, which will also join its Tersa shareholding. These are Gavà, Esplugues, Pallejà and Cervelló, all of them in the Baix Llobregat region.
With these incorporations, there will be 15 metropolitan municipalities attached to Barcelona Energia, a firm that set itself the goal in the budget report for this year to invoice 78.6% more and reach a turnover of 45.57 million euros.