ELECTRICITY bills will be charged by the hour from today (Thursday, October 1), meaning consumers only pay for what they use and when.
Effectively, this involves 24 tariffs throughout the day and, based upon bi-monthly bills covering a typical 60 days, a total of 1,440 different prices, according to utility boards.
Only customers whose electricity is supplied by the so-called 'regulated market', rather than those who have shopped around for different providers, will be affected since independent utility firms offer their own individual formulae for billing.
Presently, a total of 14 million people in Spain are 'regulated market' electricity consumers and will now be billed by the hour.
The difference between peak rates and the cheapest rate of the day can be as much as 31%, according to figures published by the national grid.
Information in real-time is sent to suppliers via the digital or 'smart' meters which are gradually being rolled out across Spain, with updates every 20 seconds.
Hourly billing is only possible for those with 'smart' meters already fitted – expected to be 16 million households by the end of this year, or 57% of the total, although only about half of these are on 'regulated market' electricity.
By the end of 2018, the government wants all homes and businesses with power supplies of up to 15kW to be on smart meters.
Fitting these does not attract a cost to the consumer, meaning if anyone tries to charge for doing so, alarm bells should ring instantly.
'Renting' the meter costs 81 cents a month, which is 40% higher than the price of renting an analogue meter.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com