Since January 1, 2026, significant updates have been applied to electric access tolls and regulated charges that are part of your electricity bill in Spain. These modifications stem from official regulations published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and decisions by the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC), affecting both households and businesses.

These changes are already in effect and do not depend on your electric marketer prices: they are part of the regulated structure of the Spanish electricity system.
Understanding these concepts is essential to correctly analyze your energy costs, detect deviations, and make informed decisions in supply management.

How do these updates affect your bill?

The electricity bill consists of two main sections:

Regulated part, set by the State

Market part, which depends on the contracted energy price

The 2026 updates affect exclusively the regulated part, which represents a significant portion of the total bill. This means that:

• They are applied automatically from January 1, 2026
• They do not depend on supplier changes

They impact you even if your consumption remains stable

What are electric access tolls and what changed in 2026?

Access tolls are the costs that all users pay for using the electricity transmission and distribution networks. In other words, they cover the cost of transporting energy from generation plants to each supply point.

Who regulates them?

Access tolls are approved by the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) and are officially published in the BOE. For 2026, the values were established in the CNMC Resolution of December 18, 2025, effective from January 1, 2026.

What does the update mean?

According to the CNMC, electric access tolls for 2026 will increase by an average of 0.5% compared to 2025, as a result of the update to the transmission and distribution remuneration approved for the entire Spanish electricity system.

The impact is not the same for all users:

^{Source: Resolution of December 18, 2025, of the National Commission on Markets and Competition.}

👉 For companies, this can translate into higher structural costs, even without increasing consumption.

What are system charges and why do they matter?

System charges are another regulated component of the bill. Their purpose is to finance structural costs of the electricity system, such as:

• Incentives for renewable energy
• Supply costs in non-peninsular territories
• Capacity payments
• Financing of the electricity social bonus

Who sets the charges

Charges are established by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, through a ministerial order published in the BOE.For 2026, charges are regulated by Order TED/1524/2025, effective from January 1, 2026.

How they affect the user

• They apply both to contracted power (kW) and energy consumed (kWh)
• They directly impact the regulated part of the bill
• In businesses with high contracted power, they can be particularly significant

‍Order TED/1524/2025, of December 23, ntroduces a relevant update to system charges, with a significant average increase reaching up to 10.5% in certain segments. One of the most notable changes is the increase in the cost associated with financing the Social Bonus, applied to each supply point (CUPS). In 2026, this cost rises by 50%, from €4.65/year in 2025 to €6.98/year, directly affecting companies and users who are not Social Bonus beneficiaries.

👉 For companies and non-beneficiary users, the social bonus is not a discount but a regulated cost integrated into the bill.

Weight of updates in the total bill

According to industry estimates and economic press analyses, the regulated part (access tolls + charges) can represent between 35% and 45% of the total electricity bill, depending on consumption profile and contracted power.
This means that:

• Not everything depends on electricity market prices
• Regulatory adjustments like those in 2026 have a real impact on the final bill
• In companies with multiple supply points, the effect is multiplied

Why it's important to understand these changes

For both users and companies, understanding these changes allows you to:

• Read the bill more clearly
• Identify which costs are regulated and which can be optimized
• Detect possible mismatches in contracted power
• Make better decisions regarding consumption and energy management

For companies, correctly interpreting these concepts is key to controlling costs, avoiding overpayments, and improving operational efficiency.

In businesses with multiple sites, management errors multiply:

• Poorly adjusted power: If your premises or real estate assets have more power contracted than needed, the 2026 increase in fixed charges will penalize you more than necessary.
• Power shortages: If you contract too little, bill penalties can skyrocket with the new CNMC calculations.

Illustrative example: How an invoice can vary from 2025 to 2026

Scenario: Let's imagine a chain of 20 restaurants in Spain with rate 3.0 TD, stable activity with no changes in consumption.

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How Polaroo transforms the management of your energy costs

he regulatory updates scheduled for 2026 highlight a recurring challenge for many companies: the lack of real visibility into how energy costs are composed, exacerbated by dispersed information and reliance on manual processes.

Polaroo centralizes all supply invoices in a single environment, collecting information in a structured and consistent way, regardless of provider or number of assets. Additionally, it automatically extracts key data from each invoice, eliminating manual tasks, reducing errors, and allowing you to:

• Compare year-on-year developments (e.g., 2025 vs. 2026)
• Detect over-contracted power
• Identify regulatory impacts not foreseen in energy costs
• Analyze consumption and cost deviations across different properties or sites
• Optimize supply contracts based on the business’s actual power, reducing unnecessary costs
• Make decisions based on reliable, consolidated data, not estimates

👉 It’s not just about paying less, but understanding why you pay what you pay.

In summary

✔ From January 1, 2026, the new electric access toll values approved by the CNMC are in effect.
✔ System charges and the financing of the Social Bonus, updated by the Ministry, are already applied in the electricity bill.
✔ These changes affect all users, although their impact varies depending on consumption profile.
✔ Understanding the regulated part of the bill is key to making informed decisions, especially in business environments.
✔ Having a solution like Polaroo, which centralizes, structures, and analyzes supply invoices, allows you to anticipate impacts, optimize contracts, and make decisions based on data rather than estimates.