How to get cheaper electricity "luz"

[Christianb]

I have got a bill from Endesa with this breakdown:

Por potencia contratada 24.18e
Por energia consumida 17.45e
Derechos de contratacion 38.42e
Regularizacion y otros conceptos 0.67e
Impuestos electricidad 1.92e
Alquiler equipos... 1.62e
IGIC Reducido 1.18e
IGIC Normal 3.14e


This is the bill for the last two months period. I wonder if there is a way to reduce the electricity bill, considering that consumed energy is only about 17 euros? It seems I am charged two times for the same service (24.18 + 38.45) . Are there are providers with cheaper service charges?

[vove]

Do not change providers, the ones who go door to door offering cheaper electricity are actually scammers and you will end up paying more (Endesa at the moment is the cheapest electricity provider). What they do is they will lower your potency to make it look like you pay less but you can do it on your own.

"Potencia contratada" is the amount in watts you can consume at a time. I used to pay around 3€ for the lowest potency of around 1,15 kW and was fine but it all depends on what you use in house. I think 24,18 € would be 8,05 kW, that's a lot. Check the power consumption on the house appliances you use and lower the potency accordingly. The thing is you can change the potency only 2 times a year (or only 1 time, don't remember). Generally if you don't use electric oven, electric cooking plate and microwaves it is hard to use up all the contracted potency, but seeing you consumed energy for only 17€ I guess you would do fine with the lowest potency (don't take my word for it though).

"Derechos de contratacion" is the cost of connecting you to the grid and you are charged with it only once.

[Christianb]

I have had some suspicious looking people coming to my door offering cheaper electricity, claiming that they can cut out the middle man, Endesa, and save me 8e per bill. But I did not sign up, not before I do a research. I will consider lowering the potency which is now 3.45Kw (tarifa 2.0A).
Thanks for the advice.

[delderek]

My goodness that is low, if you have a water heater plus a washing machine on together you are probably around 4kw, that's without a kettle or lights or TV. Just for comparison, the minimum supply current in the UK is 40amp (11kw) with new builds having a 60amp supply. Correct me if I am wrong, but if you go on the small tariff, are you not charged a massive fee for going over your allocated power rating?

[vove]

I have had some suspicious looking people coming to my door offering cheaper electricity, claiming that they can cut out the middle man, Endesa, and save me 8e per bill. But I did not sign up, not before I do a research. I will consider lowering the potency which is now 3.45Kw (tarifa 2.0A).
Thanks for the advice.

I just checked at Endesa webpage and they charge 3,170286 €/month for 1 W of contracted potency, so you should be paying around 10,97 €. If this is your first invoice maybe they did some alignment for the period where you had electricity but it hasn't been entire invoicing period, so you got charged for few days + current month + next month (had something similar with a phone contract). I don't know if they do something like that though, the best would be to call them and they will explain each position on the invoice and where did that amount come from.


My goodness that is low, if you have a water heater plus a washing machine on together you are probably around 4kw, that's without a kettle or lights or TV. Just for comparison, the minimum supply current in the UK is 40amp (11kw) with new builds having a 60amp supply. Correct me if I am wrong, but if you go on the small tariff, are you not charged a massive fee for going over your allocated power rating?

"Potencia contratada" is something like a bandwidth for Internet connection. If you have 11 kW of potency contracted it means that at once you can connect appliances that in watts consume what you pay for, that would be 11 000 W. If you go over it your fuse will jump out and cut you off the grid.

Now I am not exactly sure how they calculate it to be honest, I think the time over which you use the appliances also has something to do here. When I had the lowest fare contracted (1,15 kW) I am almost 100% sure I was way over the limit with what I consumed: 2 computers, electric water heater, fridge and some small appliances working basically 24/7, occasionally washing machine, and the fuse never popped, and the invoices were so low that landlord didn't even bother with sending them to me and paid them herself :D

If someone would have more info on that topic he/she could share it as I am very curious myself.

[tfs1]

We have Iberdrola here in Spain, the website is very good and the prices pretty good - looking to see if a move from Endesa to Iberdrola in Tenerife is benefical but will have to do some investigation first. Iberdrola as a supplier are available in Tenerife should you want to switch suppliers.

We had a smart meter installed here in Spain a couple of months ago (also have one in Tenerife) which have meant and allowed a move to back monthly billing - the Iberdrola bills now seem lower, even accounting for the more frequent bills - Iberdrola webside allows you to see weekly/daily/hourly usage that you couldnt have before the smart meter was installled. Endesa dont seem to provide this low level of detail.

Switching when someone knocks on yuor door is asking for trouble and as mentioned - buyer beware !