Electrical adjustment services have become more expensive by 778% since 2020 and leave supermarkets with an extra cost of 61 million this year

The shopping basket resists, but the light threatens to break the truce. With inflation stuck at 4.9% since September, its highest level since February 2023, food prices rose almost half, 2.4%. Supermarkets, on the other hand, report that the cost of keeping the electrical grid stable, a part of their electricity bill, is today almost nine times higher than in 2020, and the question is how long they will be able to absorb it without passing it on to prices.

A supermarket needs electricity 24 hours a day to preserve food, maintain the cold chain and air-condition its stores and logistics platforms. And for every megawatt hour it consumes, it pays, in addition to energy, the so-called adjustment services, the cost of keeping the electrical grid in balance to avoid blackouts. According to calculations by Asedas, the employer's association that represents 75% of food distribution, based on data from Red Eléctrica, the average price of these services has gone from 2.54 euros per megawatt hour in 2020 to 22.3 euros between January and October 2026, 778% more.

In the last year alone, the increase has been 41%, since in 2025 the megawatt hour of these services cost 15.78 euros. For supermarkets as a whole, the extra cost amounts to 61 million euros so far this year and 245 million since 2020, according to Asedas.

Felipe Medina, technical general secretary of the employers' association, admits that these services are "necessary to guarantee the balance and stability of the electrical system, as was proven after the blackout in April 2025", but maintains that their cost "should not fall, among others, on food distribution companies." "It is essential to review how these extra costs are generated, calculated and transferred to detect inefficiencies and correct them without compromising the security of supply," adds Medina, who asks to take into account "the enormous impact on strategic sectors such as food, which are large consumers of electricity."