Information on natural gas access tariffs

Find out the easy way all about the changes to the regulations and how they will be reflected in your bills.New developments in natural gas access tolls.

Natural gas access tolls

What are access tolls and system charges?

Until 30 September 2021, a single charge associated with the access toll appeared on gas bills, covering all gas system costs. From 1 October 2021, this is broken down into two different charges—access tolls and system charges—and the corresponding costs are assigned to each of them.

Access tolls are associated with the use of gas system facilities (maintenance of the natural gas pipelines, regasification, transport and distribution network).

Gas system charges are intended to finance costs that are not linked to the use of these facilities.

From access tariffs to access tolls

The old access tariffs 3.1, 3.2, etc., no longer appear on your bill and have been replaced by the new access tolls RL.1, RL.2, etc., which are determined by supply point consumption.

Distribution companies will calculate consumption based on the consumption recorded in the previous year. Thus, each user pays in accordance with their use of gas networks and supply. The amount paid for new supplies will be determined based on expected consumption.

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Gas access tolls and charges based on consumption

Pressure-based tariff segments disappear and are now defined exclusively by consumption. The price of access tolls and charges will vary based on the toll that corresponds to you. The distributor may change your tariff during the annual review depending on your actual consumption throughout the previous year.

If you do not agree with the change in tariff, you should contact your supply company.

Annual review of access tolls

Access tolls will be updated on 1 October based on the gas year (the period running from 1 October to 30 September). Until now, the price of access tolls was updated on 1 January based on the calendar year.

This year, supplies will be assigned to new tariff groups taking into account the recorded consumption from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021.

Who does this change apply to?

The change applies to all natural gas service users. This is a sector-wide regulatory change and all supply companies must apply it.

Gas system tolls and charges are the same for all consumers in the same consumption segment, and they are the same in all supply companies.

Access tolls

New natural gas access tolls are determined by the user’s annual consumption and are reviewed automatically on an annual basis.

Most domestic users are in groups RL.1, RL.2 and RL.3. The letters RL stand for “Redes Locales” (“Local Networks” in English). The segments were more general in the previous classification, and this new distribution aims to better fit the consumption of each supply point.

Industrial customers, the largest gas consumers, are also affected by this nomenclature change.

The following explains how the old tariffs 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, etc. correspond to the new access tolls RL.1, RL.2, RL.3, etc.

Nuevo peaje	Tamaño (kWh)	Grupo tarifario actualmente en vigor	Tamaño (kWh)	Grupo tarifario actualmente en vigor	Tamaño (kWh)
		Grupo 2 4 ≤ P < 60 bar		Grupo 3 P < 4 bar
RL.1	C ≤ 5.000	2.1	C ≤ 500.000	3.1	C ≤ 5.000
RL.2	5.000 < C ≤ 15.000			3.2	5.000 < C ≤ 50.000
RL.3	15.000 < C ≤ 50.000			3.2	5.000 < C ≤ 50.000
RL.4	50.000 < C ≤ 300.000			3.3	50.000 < C ≤ 100.000
RL.5	300.000 < C ≤ 1.500.000			3.4	100.000 < C ≤ 8.000.000
RL.6	1.500.000 < C ≤ 5.000.000	2.2	500.000 < C ≤ 5.000.000
RL.7	5.000.000 < C ≤ 15.000.000	2.3	5.000.000 < C ≤ 30.000.000
RL.8	15.000.000 < C ≤ 50.000.000	2.4	30.000.000 < C ≤ 500.000.000	3.5	C > 8.000.000
RL.9	50.000.000 < C ≤ 150.000.000	2.5	1000.000.000 < C ≤ 500.000.000
RL.10	150.000.000 < C ≤ 500.000.000	2.5	1000.000.000 < C ≤ 500.000.000
RL.11	C > 500.000.000	2.6	C > 500.000.000

Details of gas system charges

Fee from the CNMC and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge
Differential cost of the supply of liquefied natural gas or manufactured gas and/or propane-air mix other than natural gas in island regions that are not connected to the gas pipeline or liquefied natural gas plant network.
Demand management measures.
Annual payment corresponding to temporary imbalances and the accumulated deficit as of 31 December 2014
When applicable, regulated retribution of the organised natural gas market operator.
Any other cost expressly attributed by legal regulation.

What else should you know?

These changes took effect on 1 October 2021.

If you have any further questions,

About the changes in the natural gas tolls you can send us your query

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