Do customers in the Canaries pay more for electricity than on the mainland?

No. Article 16.3 of Law 24/2013 requires uniform network tariffs and levies across the country, and article 17.1 a uniform regulated consumer price.

Who receives the money?

UNELCO, of the Endesa group, with 1,022,300,742.77 euros for 2025, and Gorona del Viento on El Hierro with 4,306,556.15. It is a payment to generators, not to consumers.

Why did the amount fall so sharply in 2025?

The CNMC gives no reason. Official port prices were 12 to 14 per cent lower in 2025 depending on the fuel, the mainland market price 3.6 per cent higher; the renewable share was almost unchanged.

How much of it is mine?

That cannot be stated honestly from the official sources. Half is carried by the state budget, the other half spread through the «cargos» across all Spanish electricity customers.

Will the amount keep falling?

Order TED/1524/2025 budgets a system contribution of 840,950 thousand euros for 2026 — under the fifty per cent rule about around 1.68 billion euros for all island territories. That points to stabilisation rather than a further drop.

CANARY ISLANDS · ECONOMY

1.026 billion euros: why Canary Islands power costs so much more

Generating electricity in the Canary Islands costs far more than power is worth on the mainland wholesale market. The recognised difference is called the «extracoste», and in 2025 it reached at least 1,026,607,298.92 euros on the islands — the sum of the two Canary entries in the provisional settlement published by the regulator CNMC on 21 April 2026. Half is paid out of the Spanish state budget and half by every electricity customer in Spain. But a different figure is the more striking one: against 2024 the amount fell by 18.3 per cent — and the settlement does not say why.

17 September 2026 · By Martin Kosinski · 6 min. · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief

The wind farm on the island of El Hierro (illustrative)

Photo: CARLOS TEIXIDOR CADENAS, CC BY-SA 3.0 (illustrative image).

The figures and where they come from

Canary Islands 2025: at least 1,026,607,298.92 euros — UNELCO 1,022,300,742.77 plus Gorona del Viento 4,306,556.15. CNMC, provisional settlement LIQ/DE/006/25; addition by this newsroom.
All non-peninsular territories 2025: 1,662,335,354.30 euros — of which Balearics 468,064,922.55, Ceuta 34,302,098.97, Melilla 33,264,214.96.
Canary Islands 2024: at least 1,255,887,627.26 euros (CNMC LIQ/DE/006/24). The 18.3 per cent fall is a calculation by this newsroom.
Fuel: the Canary port price of fuel oil BIA 1 % S fell on annual average from 474.07 to 405.78 euros per tonne. Directorate-General for Energy Policy and Mines; averages calculated by this newsroom.
This year: January to June 2026 together 997,912,176.93 euros for all island territories, of which UNELCO 639,302,599.03. CNMC LIQ/DE/006/26.

What the extracoste is and who pays it

The fifteenth additional provision of Law 24/2013 on the electricity sector orders that these costs «serán financiados en un 50 por ciento con cargo a los Presupuestos Generales del Estado». The system recovers the second half through the «cargos», the levy component of the regulated tariff. In the Canaries the recipients are Unión Eléctrica de Canarias Generación, S.A. (UNELCO), the Endesa group's island generator, and Gorona del Viento, S.A. on El Hierro — not to be confused with Endesa Generación, S.A., which appears separately in the same table for Ceuta and Melilla. The purpose is what matters: article 16.3 of the same law makes «los peajes y cargos […] únicos en todo el territorio nacional», and article 17.1 does the same for the regulated consumer price. A household in Las Palmas pays the same tariff as one in Madrid.

Why the bill fell by 18.3 per cent

The resolutions do not explain the fall; they are settlement acts without any analysis of causes. The official price rulings answer the question all the same. The Directorate-General for Energy Policy and Mines sets every six months the port prices island power stations may charge, and on the Canary annual average every grade fell sharply: fuel oil BIA 1 % S by 14.4 per cent, diesel oil by 12.2, gasoil 0.1 % S by 12.4. The revenue side pushed the same way: the Spanish day-ahead market price rose, according to OMIE, from an average of 63.03 to 65.28 euros per megawatt hour, and the higher it sits, the smaller the gap to be covered. The growth of renewables does not explain it: according to Red Eléctrica they covered 20.8 per cent of Canary generation in 2024 and around 21 in 2025. Demand did not fall either. The drop is essentially a fuel-price effect, and can reverse at any time.

The structural reason: no cable to the mainland

The Canaries are the only large Spanish electricity system with no connection to the European grid; each island must hold its own peak load and reserve, mostly on imported oil. The Instituto Canario de Estadística puts the share of petroleum products in generation in 2024 at «un 79,2 por ciento del total». Two projects are meant to change that. In February 2026 Red Eléctrica connected the previously isolated La Gomera to Tenerife with a 36-kilometre submarine cable costing 145 million euros. Heavier still is the Salto de Chira pumped-storage plant on Gran Canaria, budgeted at 589 million euros and announced for 2027. Neither was yet at work in 2025.

Three live conflicts

First, the generators sued the State and partly won: on 22 July 2024, in case 254/2023, the Tribunal Supremo partly upheld a challenge by Endesa Generación, GESA and UNELCO against the fuel-pricing order TED/1315/2022, annulled the natural-gas wording for the Canaries and Melilla, and recognised the companies' right to the difference plus interest (BOE-A-2024-20588). Second, the State did not pay: «la disponibilidad de crédito efectiva para la Liquidación 14/2025 es nula», says the same resolution, which leaves 16,681,637.01 euros outstanding, 11,410,501.85 of it for UNELCO. Third, the CNMC cuts claims too: for 2022 it recognised 110,824,219.75 euros, «inferior en 148.928 miles de euros a la solicitada por dicha compañía» (INF/DE/318/23).

A subsidy, or the price of equal treatment?

Both readings rest on the same figures. For the first: around a billion euros a year flows to what is essentially one company for fossil generation. For the second there is the purpose of the mechanism. The law prescribes uniform charges and consumer prices across the country; without the compensation, the real cost of generating on the islands would have to feed into a separate and far higher island tariff. The extracoste is the price of that equal treatment, not a discount Canary customers pocket. And it is provisional: the last definitively settled year is 2020, at 1,203,591,210.51 euros for all island territories (BOE-A-2025-4592).

How to check it yourself: the settlements are free and need no registration at cnmc.es; search for the file reference LIQ/DE/006/25 for 2025, LIQ/DE/006/24 for 2024 or LIQ/DE/006/26 for the current year. The breakdown by company is in the annex on the last page. The legal basis is on boe.es in Law 24/2013 under «disposición adicional decimoquinta». On your own bill your share does not appear separately: it sits inside the «peajes y cargos» block.

Four traps: first, 2024 and 2025 are provisional settlements. Second, every Canary total is a floor: the column for the specific remuneration regime, 100,096,818.90 euros for 2025, is reported, according to the resolution's own footnote, «de forma agregada para todos los sujetos y sistemas», that is without a breakdown by territory. Third, figures above 1.5 billion euros circulate for the Canaries in 2025 — that is the amount for all island territories including the Balearics, Ceuta and Melilla. Fourth, distrust any per-Canary-household figure: the amount is borne by the state budget and by all Spanish electricity customers.

FAQ

Do customers in the Canaries pay more for electricity than on the mainland?: No. Article 16.3 of Law 24/2013 requires uniform network tariffs and levies across the country, and article 17.1 a uniform regulated consumer price.
Who receives the money?: UNELCO, of the Endesa group, with 1,022,300,742.77 euros for 2025, and Gorona del Viento on El Hierro with 4,306,556.15. It is a payment to generators, not to consumers.
Why did the amount fall so sharply in 2025?: The CNMC gives no reason. Official port prices were 12 to 14 per cent lower in 2025 depending on the fuel, the mainland market price 3.6 per cent higher; the renewable share was almost unchanged.
How much of it is mine?: That cannot be stated honestly from the official sources. Half is carried by the state budget, the other half spread through the «cargos» across all Spanish electricity customers.
Will the amount keep falling?: Order TED/1524/2025 budgets a system contribution of 840,950 thousand euros for 2026 — under the fifty per cent rule about around 1.68 billion euros for all island territories. That points to stabilisation rather than a further drop.

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