PVPC, TUR, fixed, indexed: a guide to electricity and gas tariffs in Spain

If you've tried to make sense of a Spanish electricity or gas bill and ended up with more questions than you started with, it isn't a language problem or a you problem. Spain runs two parallel energy markets (regulated and free), two different products (electricity and gas) with completely different price-review rules, and a vocabulary — PVPC, TUR, time-of-use periods, indexed tariffs — that no bill ever explains. The confusion is the default design, not your failure. For anyone who moved to Spain and signed whatever contract the previous tenant or the estate agent suggested, this guide is the map you were never given.

It separates the two questions that almost always get tangled together: regulated market or free market? and, within each, which type of tariff? Electricity and gas are treated separately, because although they share a structure, their pricing follows a different logic.

The underlying map: two markets, not one

Since Spain liberalised its energy sector in the late 1990s, two markets have coexisted for the same supply:

• Regulated market: the price is set by the State, is identical across every supplier authorised to offer it, and is reviewed by public formulas. For electricity it's called the PVPC; for gas, the TUR.
• Free market: each supplier sets its own price and conditions. This is where fixed tariffs, indexed tariffs, and most discount offers, dual-fuel bundles, and add-on services live.

Nobody assigns you to one or the other: it's the account holder's choice, and you can switch between them at no cost unless a contractual lock-in applies (more below). The first step to knowing which one you're on is reading your bill: if it says "PVPC" or "tarifa regulada" for electricity, or "TUR" for gas, you're on the regulated market.

Electricity: how the PVPC price is built

The PVPC (Precio Voluntario para el Pequeño Consumidor, "voluntary price for the small consumer") is the regulated electricity tariff. Its legal basis is Royal Decree 216/2014, which replaced the old electricity tariff of last resort. Only the eight State-designated reference suppliers (comercializadoras de referencia) may offer it, and only supplies with a contracted power of 10 kW or less qualify — which covers practically any home.

The PVPC is not one fixed number: it's assembled from several pieces, each calculated and reviewed on its own schedule.

1. Energy term: the cost of the electricity itself. Since the reform introduced by Royal Decree 446/2023, it no longer depends solely on the hourly wholesale market price (the daily auction run by OMIE); part of it is anchored to forward contracts negotiated months in advance, precisely to dampen the spikes seen during the 2021-2022 energy crisis. Since 2025, the electricity market publishes prices in 15-minute intervals rather than hourly, so in practice the PVPC changes several times per hour.
2. Access tolls and charges: set by the CNMC (Spain's markets and competition authority) to cover the maintenance of the transmission and distribution grids. They sit outside the market and are updated by regulation, not daily.
3. Retail margin: a small, regulated amount the reference supplier charges for managing the contract.
4. Taxes: VAT (the general 21% rate has applied again since 1 June 2026, after the temporary tax cuts introduced during the price crisis ended) and the Special Electricity Tax of 5.11%.

Every household on the PVPC also has mandatory time-of-use pricing in three periods since June 2021: peak (punta), standard (llano), and off-peak (valle), tied to the 2.0TD access toll. In other words: the same electricity costs a different amount depending on the hour you use it, with off-peak (usually overnight) being the cheapest band.

One nuance worth being clear about: the PVPC is not a company. It's a regulated price offered by eight State-designated suppliers; signing up for "Endesa's electricity" or "Iberdrola's electricity" through their free-market arm is not the same as contracting the PVPC with that company's regulated subsidiary, however confusing the branding.

Electricity: the free-market options

Outside the PVPC, more than 300 suppliers compete with tariffs whose prices are not State-controlled. The three variants worth telling apart:

• Fixed tariff: the price per kWh is agreed and stays stable for the life of the contract, usually one year, with or without time-of-use periods. In exchange for that stability, the supplier typically builds a risk premium into the price, because it's the one absorbing the cost if the market rises.
• Indexed tariff: follows the wholesale price hour by hour, much like the PVPC, but calculated with each supplier's own formula rather than the State's public one. It tends to work out better in stable or falling markets, and it requires being able to shift part of your consumption to the cheapest hours to genuinely benefit.
• Tariffs with discounts, dual-fuel bundles (electricity + gas), or add-on services: boiler maintenance, priority support, certified renewable energy. The price of the energy itself may not be the most competitive; the rest of the package is what you're paying for.

The underlying question — fixed or indexed, or straight to the PVPC — has no single answer: it depends on whether your consumption is predictable and constant through the day (fixed protects you better) or whether you can shift the washing machine, dishwasher, or EV charging to off-peak hours (indexed or PVPC reward that flexibility). The mechanism underneath is, ultimately, supply and demand operating in real time: when demand drops overnight and renewable generation rises, the price falls; when the whole country switches on the heating or the air conditioning at once, it rises.

Natural gas: the TUR and its bands

Gas has its own regulated tariff, the TUR (Tarifa de Último Recurso, "tariff of last resort"), with a different legal basis from electricity: it stems from Law 34/1998 on the hydrocarbons sector, with its methodology set in Order ITC/1660/2009. And here is the first structural difference from electricity: the gas TUR does not change by the hour. It's reviewed quarterly — on 1 January, April, July, and October — and only if the cost of the raw material has moved more than 2% since the last review. There is no time-of-use pricing in domestic gas: you pay the same whether you use it at 3 in the afternoon or 3 in the morning.

The gas TUR is open to consumers with a supply pressure of 4 bar or less and annual consumption below 50,000 kWh — a threshold that comfortably covers any home, even one with gas heating. Since Royal Decree-law 4/2024, homeowners' associations (comunidades de propietarios) with central gas heating, residential public buildings, and the energy-service companies serving them can also opt in with no consumption cap.

Within the TUR there are several bands by annual consumption, each with its own standing charge (monthly, regardless of what you use) and variable term (per kWh consumed):

• TUR.1: consumption of 5,000 kWh/year or less. The typical band for a home using gas only for cooking and hot water.
• TUR.2: consumption between 5,001 and 15,000 kWh/year. The usual band once individual gas heating is added.
• TUR.3: consumption between 15,001 and 50,000 kWh/year. Large homes, small businesses, or intensive individual central heating.

You don't choose the band: the distributor assigns it automatically based on what your meter recorded the previous year. As a reference for the review in force since 1 July 2026, TUR.1's variable term sits around 4.33 euro cents per kWh before taxes, and TUR.3's around 3.78 cents — the higher the consumption band, the lower the unit price tends to be — per the resolution of the Directorate-General for Energy Policy and Mines published in the BOE.

Natural gas: the free market

In the free gas market the logic mirrors electricity — a fixed price agreed for a year versus a price indexed to the wholesale market — but with one practically relevant difference: since domestic gas has no time-of-use pricing, the variable that weighs most on the decision isn't "when do I consume" but "how long do I want protection from a price rise", and whether the bundle includes electricity or boiler-maintenance services — far more common in dual-fuel gas offers than in electricity-only ones.

Electricity vs. gas, in one table

The bono social: it only exists on the regulated tariff

This is a point of genuine confusion: the bono social eléctrico (electricity social discount) is a discount on the PVPC, not a voucher you can apply on the free market. If you're on a private supplier's fixed or indexed tariff and think you may qualify, the first legal step is to move back to the PVPC with a reference supplier; the discount applies on that base, not before.

The general requirements, regulated by Royal Decree 897/2017, distinguish three levels — vulnerable consumer, severely vulnerable, and vulnerable at risk of social exclusion — with income thresholds calculated against the IPREM (Spain's public income indicator) and variants for large families, pensioners on the minimum pension, and recipients of the Ingreso Mínimo Vital. The discounts in force during 2026, extraordinarily extended by Royal Decree-law 7/2026, are 42.5% for vulnerable consumers and 57.5% for severely vulnerable ones, applied to the PVPC's energy and power terms before taxes.

There is also a bono social térmico: a single annual payment, not a bill discount, meant to offset spending on heating, hot water, or cooking (natural gas, butane, heating oil, or electric heating), reserved for those already receiving the electricity bono social.

Switching tariff or supplier: what it really costs

Switching supplier, tariff, or between the regulated and free markets (in either direction) is, by default, free and never interrupts your supply. Regulation sets a maximum of 21 calendar days from requesting the switch to it taking effect.

The only case where it can cost you is if your current contract includes a lock-in clause (permanencia) — common on the free market when the offer includes a special discount or extra services, and never present on the PVPC. That lock-in cannot exceed one year, and if you break it early, the penalty has a legal ceiling: at most 5% of the value of the energy left to be supplied until the end of the contract, per Royal Decree 1434/2002. Any charge above that percentage can be challenged before the CNMC. On top of that, every new contract — with or without a lock-in — carries a 14-day withdrawal period from signing, during which you can cancel with no penalty at all, though you are billed for the energy actually consumed in that period.

How to decide, in practice

"Which tariff suits me?" breaks down into three smaller, concrete questions:

1. Can I shift consumption to off-peak hours or low-price moments? If your work schedule or habits let you run the washing machine, dishwasher, or EV charging outside peak hours, the PVPC or an indexed tariff rewards that flexibility. If your consumption is rigid — you work from home on a fixed schedule, say — a fixed tariff removes the uncertainty without penalising you for being unable to shift anything.
2. Do I value certainty in the monthly bill more than the expected medium-term saving? A fixed tariff costs, on average, somewhat more than a well-chosen indexed tariff or the PVPC, precisely because that premium buys protection against price spikes. If a surprise bill would destabilise your budget, the premium can still be worth it.
3. Do I meet the bono social requirements? If so, the PVPC isn't one option among several: it's almost always the cheapest, because it's the only base the discount applies to.

And one check that takes five minutes and very few households ever do: review your contracted power (potencia contratada). Paying for capacity you never use — or falling short and tripping the supply — is, in practice, one of the cheapest, highest-impact adjustments you can make to your annual bill, well ahead of switching supplier.

Sources: Royal Decree 216/2014 (PVPC regulation); Royal Decree 446/2023 (partial indexation to forward markets); Royal Decree-law 4/2024 (extension of the gas TUR to homeowners' associations); Law 34/1998 on the hydrocarbons sector and Order ITC/1660/2009 (gas TUR methodology); Resolution of 25 June 2026 of the Directorate-General for Energy Policy and Mines, BOE-A-2026-14233 (gas TUR prices in force since July 2026); Royal Decree 897/2017 and Royal Decree-law 7/2026 (bono social); Royal Decree 1434/2002 (legal cap on lock-in penalties); CNMC consumer guides on gas and the electricity bono social.

This article is reviewed whenever a regulated tariff, an access toll, or the regulation behind them changes. You can read how we keep our figures current in our sources.