While the rest of Europe spent 2022 writing cheques, Spain and Portugal changed the rule.
Gas sets the wholesale electricity price for everyone through marginal pricing — including every wind farm and solar panel that bid at near zero. Gas spikes, electricity spikes, regardless of how much renewable power is in the system. The rule is the problem.
Spain and Portugal capped the gas bid. The European Commission approved it in June 2022. The physics didn't change. The wind kept blowing. The rule changed.
Same continent. Same war. Same gas crisis. Half the price. The difference was a rule change.
Most countries intervened downstream — retail caps, tax cuts, transfers. Large fiscal outlays that left wholesale pricing intact and touched nothing upstream. Spain and Portugal went where the rent was being created.
The Iberian plan needs to be permanent and European. Not a temporary exception. The foundation of a reformed electricity market.
Spain and Portugal proved a rule change delivers results faster than a cheque.
The rest of Europe watched, paid its subsidies, and let the rule stand. Change the rule. Europe-wide. Now.