Since June 2021, every Spanish household with under 15 kW contracted power is on the 2.0TD tariff. It's not optional. The system charges different prices for different times of day — a structure similar to the UK's Economy 7 or Norway's effekttariff, but with three tiers instead of two.
The honest question: does optimizing actually save you money, or is it noise? It depends on your routine.
The three tiers — peak, mid, off-peak
2.0TD splits the day into three bands:
| Band | Hours (Mon–Fri) | Price level |
|---|---|---|
| Peak (P1) | 10:00 – 14:00 and 18:00 – 22:00 | High |
| Mid (P2) | 08:00 – 10:00, 14:00 – 18:00, 22:00 – 24:00 | Medium |
| Off-peak (P3) | 00:00 – 08:00 | Low |
Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays: all 24 hours count as off-peak. This is the most overlooked rule.
How big are the differences? For the regulated tolls and charges, peak is roughly 6× more expensive than off-peak. For the PVPC energy (the variable part), peak is typically 2–4× off-peak. Stack everything: a peak-hour kWh can cost 3× an off-peak kWh in your final bill.
Who actually wins from 2.0TD?
You win a lot if:
- You're out of the house during work hours (lots of mid/off-peak time)
- You can program washing machine, dishwasher, and water heater to start between 00:00 and 08:00
- Heating or A/C uses a programmable thermostat
- You cook with gas or induction (induction is fast, so cooking time is short)
You win little or nothing if:
- You have continuous electric heating (old non-compliant storage heaters or poorly regulated radiant floors)
- You work from home and consume mostly between 09:00 and 18:00
- You bake or cook in an electric oven nightly between 19:00 and 21:00
- You have ceramic-glass (non-induction) hobs and use them a lot
A typical family with weekday office hours saves €80–€200/year simply by shifting laundry, dishes, and water heating to off-peak. Not life-changing, but not nothing either.
How it's different from UK Economy 7
If you're coming from the UK, here are the differences:
- 3 tiers in Spain vs 2 in Economy 7
- Off-peak is shorter in Spain (00:00–08:00 = 8 hours, vs Economy 7's 7 hours typically)
- Weekends are entirely off-peak in Spain — Economy 7 doesn't offer this
- 2.0TD is mandatory in Spain for sub-15-kW homes; Economy 7 in the UK is opt-in
- PVPC layers an additional hourly market price on top — even within "off-peak", the price varies by the hour. There's no UK equivalent of this hourly granularity.
Two contracted powers, not one
A trick that almost nobody uses: under 2.0TD you can contract two different contracted powers, one for peak and one for off-peak.
Typical case: a family contracts 4.4 kW. At night they barely use 2 kW (fridge, router, a washing machine). But on weekday evenings they can hit 4 kW (cooking + TV + dishwasher running together).
Optimal config: 3.45 kW peak + 4.4 kW off-peak. Saves about €20/year without any breaker-tripping risk. Your distributor changes it online in five minutes.
When it's not worth optimizing
If your monthly bill is under €40, optimizing to the millimeter saves you €5–8/month — barely worth the brain space. Worth doing if:
- You pay over €60/month
- You have modern appliances with delay-start
- You can spend one weekend setting it up
After that, forget about it. The optimization is "set and done," not weekly maintenance.
Verify if you're winning
Look at last month's bill and find the breakdown by tariff period (every modern bill has one):
- If >50% of your kWh are in peak → clear room for improvement
- If >40% are off-peak → already well optimized
- If >30% are mid → use weekends for big tasks (laundry, batch cooking)
To find the exact cheapest hour within the off-peak window for tomorrow, check the 24-hour heatmap on the homepage.