Time-of-use electricity tariffs in Spain: when they pay off, and when they don't
Since the 2021 electricity tariff reform, almost every residential tariff in Spain comes with time-of-use pricing by default — the Spanish call it discriminación horaria. The price per kWh changes depending on the time of day. So the real question isn't "do I have time-of-use pricing?" — you probably do. It's: "am I making it work for me, or is it quietly costing me money?"
This guide is for answering that honestly.
How the time bands work
Under the 2.0TD access tariff (which applies to virtually all Spanish homes, set by CNMC Circular 3/2020), there are three bands:
- Peak (P1): Monday to Friday, 10am-2pm and 6pm-10pm. The most expensive kWh.
- Mid (P2): Monday to Friday, 8am-10am, 2pm-6pm and 10pm-midnight. Middle price.
- Off-peak (P3): Monday to Friday midnight-8am, all weekend (Saturday, Sunday), and national bank holidays. The cheapest kWh.
Regional or local bank holidays don't count as off-peak — only national ones.
The contracted power term is also split: P1 (Monday-Friday 8am-midnight) and P2 (everything else). That's contracted separately and there's usually less room to optimise — unless you have a clearly night-heavy usage profile.
What the price gap actually looks like
On PVPC (the regulated tariff) the prices change every hour, so the gap varies. On free-market tariffs with time-of-use pricing, June 2026 sample rates (taxes included) sit roughly in these ranges:
- P1 (peak): €0.18 to €0.25 per kWh.
- P2 (mid): €0.11 to €0.15 per kWh.
- P3 (off-peak): €0.07 to €0.12 per kWh.
Which means off-peak can cost less than half of peak. So shifting consumption from peak to off-peak isn't marketing fluff — it moves real money.
When it pays off: three clear profiles
1. Households where life happens at night and at the weekend
You're out of the house Monday to Friday, you get home late, you run the washing machine and the dishwasher after 10pm, you eat out, you cook all weekend. Most of your consumption lands in off-peak.
For this profile, time-of-use pricing is clearly in your favour.
2. Households with an electric car that charges overnight
If you charge the car between midnight and 8am (or between 10pm and midnight, if your tariff counts that as mid), the saving versus a flat-rate tariff can be substantial. Charging an EV is a large load, and putting that load entirely in off-peak makes a clear difference.
3. Households with electric water heaters or storage heaters on a timer
Electric water tanks scheduled to heat overnight, or older storage radiators that charge up at night, fit perfectly into off-peak. These used to be the "night tariff" houses of the 80s and 90s. Same logic still works.
When it does NOT pay off
1. Households where someone works from home during the day
If you're in the flat between 10am and 2pm and again between 6pm and 10pm, with air-con or electric heating running, a computer, lunch on the hob, and so on — most of your consumption lands in peak. A time-of-use tariff will cost you more than a flat-rate one.
The partial workaround: if you can shift the washing machine, dishwasher, iron and dryer to night or weekend, that softens the damage. But the unavoidable baseload (fridge, computer, heating/cooling) keeps falling in peak.
2. Households running a lot of summer cooling
Air-con between 2pm and 10pm in July and August. Peak hours are exactly when you most need to cool the flat. If you can't tough it out without air-con in those hours, you'll be paying the highest rate on your largest summer load.
3. Households with babies or older people at home all day
Frequent laundry, heating, meals, hot baths. The consumption stacks up in fixed daytime hours. Hard to move.
If it doesn't fit you: the 24h flat-rate option
Most new residential tariffs come with time-of-use pricing baked in, but a handful of retailers still offer a single per-kWh price 24 hours a day. Real examples (June 2026 sample, taxes included):
- Naturgy Tarifa Por Uso Luz: €0.112/kWh, 24 hours, every day.
- Octopus Relax: €0.147/kWh, 24 hours, every day.
These work for daytime-heavy households with no flexibility — work-from-home, small kids, heavy summer cooling. The maths is simple: same price per kWh always, no thinking about when you switch anything on.
Important fine print: in nearly every "flat" tariff on the free market, the contracted power term still has two bands, P1 and P2, because the regulated power charges are structured that way. For example:
- Naturgy Por Uso Luz: power P1 at €0.123030/kW/day (Monday-Friday 8am-midnight) and P2 at €0.061562/kW/day (everything else).
- Octopus Relax: power P1 and P2 both at €0.118/kW/day, 24 hours. One of the few that flattens the power term too.
So "flat tariff" usually means flat on energy, not on power. Your final bill still depends on how many kW you have contracted in each band, not just on the kWh.
How to know your actual split between bands
Three ways:
- Read your bill. It shows kWh consumed in P1, P2 and P3 separately. Add them up and work out the percentages. If more than 60% lands in P1 + P2, time-of-use pricing is probably not on your side.
- Your distribution company's app. It gives you your real hourly consumption curve for the year. More precise.
- The CNMC's QR comparator. It automatically compares tariffs with and without time-of-use based on your real consumption.
The most common mistake with time-of-use
Assuming "the washing machine runs at night, so I'm already saving". A washing machine is roughly 1 kWh per cycle, two or three times a week. An average household uses 200 to 400 kWh per month. The night washing cycle is 8 to 12 kWh a month. That's not what moves your bill.
What moves your bill is heating and cooling, the kitchen, and any large appliance running for hours at a time. Look at where those land, not the standalone washing cycle.
Things people believe that aren't always true
"Saturdays are always off-peak, so I save"
True for most tariffs. But watch out: on some indexed tariffs, Saturday isn't treated as flat off-peak — it's priced at the wholesale hourly market price (which is usually low on Saturdays, but not always). Read your contract.
"If I run everything at night, I save a fortune"
Depends on what "everything" is. If "everything" is the washing machine and dishwasher, we're talking a few euros a month. If "everything" includes an EV, yes, it's material.
"Night-time electricity is always the cheapest"
In P3, yes, by how the access tariff is built. But the total price you pay also includes the P1/P2 power term, which is billed separately. The final bill depends on the whole package.
Frequently asked questions
Can I switch off time-of-use pricing?
On PVPC, no — it's applied by regulation. On the free market, yes — some retailers offer a single per-kWh price 24 hours (Naturgy Tarifa Por Uso Luz, Octopus Relax). They usually cost more per kWh than the off-peak band of a time-of-use tariff, but less than the peak band. Important: the power term almost always still has two bands, P1 and P2, even when the energy is flat.
What hours are off-peak exactly?
Weekdays: midnight to 8am. Saturdays, Sundays and national bank holidays: the full 24 hours.
What about regional bank holidays?
They don't count as off-peak. Only national bank holidays do.
How do the summer/winter clock changes affect the bands?
The bands are defined by the official clock at the time. When the clock changes, the actual wall-clock hour shifts, but the "official" hour stays the same.
Does time-of-use pay off if I have solar panels?
Usually it pays off more with no time-of-use, or with a purely hourly tariff (PVPC or indexed), because you sell surplus at the hourly wholesale price. But it depends a lot on your specific retailer contract.
In short
Time-of-use pricing isn't good or bad on its own. It's a mechanism. Households that can shift consumption to off-peak benefit. Households locked into daytime hours pay more.
The honest way to know which one you are is to look at your actual P1 / P2 / P3 split on your bill. If you'd rather we do it for you, upload your bill to Zorrito and we'll tell you whether time-of-use is helping you or hurting you.