The trial in the AN against Iberdrola and four executives for increasing the price of electricity will start in October 2023

The judge considers that they devised a system to "cause an increase in the price of energy and harm consumers"

MADRID, 1 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The trial against Iberdrola Generación and four executives for the alleged system devised in 2013 to increase the price of the energy it sold with the purpose of "causing an increase in the price of electricity and harming consumers" will start in October 2023 in the National Court.

Legal sources have explained to Europa Press that the oral hearing will begin at the courthouse in San Fernando de Henares on October 17 of next year and is expected to continue until at least December 1.

The head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 2, Ismael Moreno, sent the company and its managers to the bench last July for a crime related to the market and consumers. In an order, the judge details that, "in order to obtain" a "higher price in the electricity market", they increased the price in the offers of electricity corresponding to their hydraulic power plants in Duero, Sil and Tajo between November and December 2013.

And they did so, he adds, "at a level above the daily market price that prevented matching operations, despite the increase experienced in those days in the prices of electricity in the spot market, which placed it at a cost optimum of opportunity. "This situation determined the withdrawal of the programming of the referred plants, that is, they stopped producing energy," adds the judge.

That decision was adopted, he maintains, by Iberdrola's management team made up of the Director of Energy Management and those responsible for Optimization, Resource Management and Trading; Asset Management; and Short-Term Markets and Global Generation.

For the four executives, the Prosecutor's Office requests, respectively, a sentence of two years in prison, with an accessory of special disqualification for employment or public office, profession, trade, industry, commerce, related to the generation or commercialization of electrical energy, and a fine of 12 months with a daily fee of 400 euros, with subsidiary personal liability in case of non-payment of 1 day of imprisonment for every 2 unpaid daily fees.

The Public Ministry also requests that Iberdrola Generación be imposed a fine of 84,891,272 euros -- four times the profit obtained -- as well as the confiscation of the profits obtained.

In his order, the instructor detailed that Iberdrola broke "the order of merit of the plants in the production office, caused the reduction of electricity generation at the Duero, Sil and Tajo hydraulic plants, and, as a consequence, that the operations of purchase will be matched with energy from combined cycle power plants, of a higher cost and in a higher price range located between €80/90/MWh compared to the average price of energy from hydroelectric power plants located at €45/55/MWh".

It was from December 24 of that same year, 2013, when "the change in weather conditions due to strong storms and wind caused a reduction in the price of energy due to the significant contribution of renewable sources."

"The consequence of the artifice devised and carried out by the defendants was the rise in the price of electrical energy by at least €7.156/MWh, which caused damage to the claim of at least €107,340,000, taking into account that it was 15,000 GWh in the period subject to the accusation and that the highest cost arising from Iberdrola's actions, as we have previously indicated, was €7.156/MWh", the magistrate pointed out.

In that period alone, the company dispatched a total of 2,965,779 megawatts, "which gave it a profit of 21,222,818 euros", which would have caused damage to different energy marketers.

The judge imposed on each of the managers the provision of a bond for a total amount of 107,534,666 euros. Specifically, 194,666 euros would be to guarantee payment of fines and the remaining 107,340,000 euros to guarantee payment of civil liabilities.

The magistrate agreed in July that Iberdrola Generación must provide a bond for a total amount of 192,231,272 euros. Thus, 84,891,272 euros will be to guarantee the payment of the fines and the remaining 107,340,000 euros to guarantee the payment of the resulting civil responsibilities.

This last amount, that of civil liability, would serve "as compensation to the electric energy marketers and the rest of natural and legal persons who prove, as final consumers of electric energy or guarantors of energy prices, to have suffered or been affected by the increase in energy prices in the period from November 30 to December 23". All the defendants will respond "jointly and severally" of that amount.

According to legal sources consulted by Europa Press, Iberdrola Generación has already guaranteed the 192,231,272 euros claimed by the magistrate.