Living here on the Costa Blanca for the last 10 years, we have become accustomed to living in a country that we like very much, but has a severely substandard electrical supply infrastructure. We quickly became used to the blackouts, the power restrictions, unstable supply etc. We just put it all down to the joys of living in Spain.
Now the electric companies are installing smart meters which on the face of it is a good thing seeing as the meters they are replacing sometime are that old they should be in a museum, probably totally inaccurate, unsafe and very easy for dodgy people to abuse.
Now, while I have no issues with modernizing the metering system, I do have issues with the safety issues which have manifested as a result.
Once you get used to the third world electrical supply system of Spain, you realize that you will probably be contracted to a miniscule kilowatt supply limit, in our case 3.3Kw but some as low as 1Kw. In the past this problem didn’t really effect most consumers as the old meters didn’t have a cut- off switch and most properties either didn’t have the dreaded ICP or it was bypassed.
The new meters now of course are set up for your contracted electrical supply, which on the face of it is okay because it makes you behave and abide by your contract restrictions.
My issue is with the dangers present when resetting the meter ICP when it has tripped and cut you off. When the smart meters were fitted in our area, stickers were placed on the meters boxes outside in the street informing you to turn off the main switch in the house when the ICP needs resetting, after 5-10 seconds the ICP will reset, well our meter ICP and anyone else’s in our area does not reset automatically, we all have to go out into the street open the meters box and press a button on the meter for it to reset. Our meter box has bare terminals with lethal voltages present where the cables enter the box, okay don’t touch them, but who is going to tell any odd kid in the street not to open these unlocked meter boxes and have a good old hair curling poke around.
The worst danger is though something else, it’s pouring down with rain (okay it doesn’t rain much in Spain) the power trips, you have to go out into the street, open a wet meter box door and touch live electrical equipment with wet hands.
Well done Iberdrola, have you never heard of Health and Safety.
This message was last edited by mr.kevin on 27/10/2016.