An assessment of the Iberian Exception to control electricity prices

Abstract

The Iberian Exception, the mechanism designed by the Spanish and Portuguese governments to address high electricity prices resulting from the gas price crisis in 2021 and 2022, has been met with controversy, both regarding its real impact on electricity prices and also its unintended consequences, such as increased (and subsidized) exports to France. In this paper we review the evidence on these impacts from different studies, concluding that the mechanism may have produced, depending on the assumptions, some reductions in electricity prices for Iberian consumers or none at all, but always at the expense of subsidies to French consumers and also increased rents for gas combined cycles, higher gas consumption, and larger CO2 emissions. Alternative mechanisms, such as a temporary single-buyer scheme, might have produced similar benefits without the downsides of the Exception.

The Iberian Exception, the mechanism designed by the Spanish and Portuguese governments to address high electricity prices resulting from the gas price crisis in 2021 and 2022, has been met with controversy, both regarding its real impact on electricity prices and also its unintended consequences, such as increased (and subsidized) exports to France. In this paper we review the evidence on these impacts from different studies, concluding that the mechanism may have produced, depending on the assumptions, some reductions in electricity prices for Iberian consumers or none at all, but always at the expense of subsidies to French consumers and also increased rents for gas combined cycles, higher gas consumption, and larger CO2 emissions. Alternative mechanisms, such as a temporary single-buyer scheme, might have produced similar benefits without the downsides of the Exception.