electricity

Hi Amicie,

Normally they would enter the premises to place an "incomer" - a master breaker of, say, 40A with a seal.  This is to make sure that you don't use more than your allotted current.  (Incredibly, in Spain the cost per kWh goes UP the higher rating you have.  i.e. the more electricity you use, the more you pay PER UNIT.)

You will have to sign a contract with Iberdrola first.  Who is looking after all of this for you?  Do you have legal representation?

Don't give any money to ANYBODY for electricity except Iberdrola.  If you are still on builder's supply (seems like it) then check your contract carefully.  Normally, builders supply is free and, as I understand it, it is illegal to live in a property that is on "builder's" (or illegal to supply it), as this supply is meant to be solely for the use of builder's tools - cement mixers etc. 

Of course, if they are supplying you from their own generator, then the story is different.  If it is a generator, then watch what you leave plugged in as genny power is notoriously unreliable.  Alternatively, fit surge protectors and UPSs.

If you want to be sure, go into any Iberdrola office with your escritura, and if possible, the meter reference number (from the front of the electric meter).  They should be able to find you on their computer (if the server isn't down, etc. etc. etc.)

Good luck!   

Thanks for that Max.

I thought they did have to enter premisies to do something.  But can I just say our contract went to the administrator so we never received it till we had our next meeting. Which was a couple of months after we had been conected.

Pat 

Hi Max,

Thanks for info. I think I had better go to Iberdrola with my escritura as we have been on builders electric for over 3 years now and definitely have signed no contract with Iberdrola.  The builder is not using a generator. 

Thanks again.

O.K. Amicie

Question - Are you paying anyone anything for your electricity at the moment?  If 'no' then check your property purchase contract.  Check with Iberdrola.

If you definitely do not have a contract with Iberdrola, and you are covered under your property agreement, then I would sit back and enjoy the free heating.

Thanks for the advice Max.  I will do just that!

Amicie

Hi,

can anyone inform me is it possible to obtain a key to

my electricity meter from iberdrola, I would like to

be able to check  if my electric readings are correct

when I receive my bills. At the present moment in

our apartment block  the cupboard to the meters is locked

so am unable to read meter as and when required.

any replies appreciated

Ask the president or administrator - they should have the key to the cupboard.

I had a query with my electric bill, and wanted to check the meter, but neither the president nor the administrator have keys.  They said that I would have to sort it out with Iberdrola. themselves  I have a house and there is a large "store cupboard" with all the meters in at the end of the road.  It has an even larger padlock!  It seems that Iberdrola don't hand out keys - or at least not in my area!!

I would imagine EC law gives you the right to see your own meter readings, but how that would be organized, I don't know.

Perhaps María del Castro can shed some light on this?

The triangular keys can be bought in any ferreteria.  

You can always have a meter fitted inside your property - see our web site - which will tell you (and, if you wish, help you control) your consumption.

Up here in the backwaters, the new cabinets have a meter in a plastic box behind a metal door.  These both have windows, but how you are supposed to see through them is a mystery to me.

Hi,

My friend who lives in spain permanently has just e-mailed

me to say that our electric box is not a triangle key but an

ordinary barrel lock.

any suggestions.!!!

Where I live in Alicante the electricy meter is in situ near to the property, but not in the house, as is other people on the Community. 

It is difficult (if not impossible to make readings yourself) and can only find out your useage when the Iberdrola bill arrives.  If there is a direct debit in place, which is the norm, once monies (large) have gone out of your account, I would imagine it will be a shock to the system. 

Iberdrola problems now.

Just like the Correos - something else that was to be put in place years ago. 

Many communities have had post boxes (at a community cost) fitted on Urbanisations.  Yet, despite years and years of hopes, ex-pats still have to collect their mail from local Correos offices.  I know of one area where they have been waiting for a Correos service for 8 years...and still waiting...and are still having to use the local correos to personally pick up their mail.

Many people slam Spain for certain things.  But come on...to get your mail delivered to a Community box surely isn't too much to ask?  Afraid so.

Thousands got ripped off with the Telmicro TV scandal....

Now the Iberdrolas has hit the headlines.  What next?

Gypsy,

Your friend needs to go into the Iberdrola office and ask about access regarding reading the meter but as with everything in Spain, pre-prepared with a document of citizens rights.  I have one for Endesa but it's 12 years old!  A trawl of the internet might help.  Or legal advice???

What's this new wealth tax for 2009? I'm sure non-residents will want to know more.

Hi Roberto

Sorry. re WT 'abolished'. The wealth tax is not abolished - neither to residents nor non residents.  It is a case of 'one out - one in'.

The Spanish authority  has referred to the “cuota íntegra” (taxable amount, i.e. the title deed price of the property)

A 100% bonus will be applied to individual liabilities for personal duties or paying taxes. In the same way, they could change the law again.  This is info from a Spanish solicitor.

A friend has a bill for 2009 for 25euros (yes) which has dropped from approx 400euros. I'll drink to that.

Yes, Acky, I saw that post on another thread as well, and also your comment  "A lot of posting on tax issues should not be taken for granted - see a solicitor or tax officer - to sort out your tax returns.  It will save a lot of problems, and sleepless nights". Quite agree, although unfortunately I think that this post, whilst well intentioned, may only confuse people further!

I think you will find that previously, you (or your friend) paid wealth tax and (imputed) income tax combined (form 214), whereas from this year you will only pay the income tax (impuesto de la renta) - which anybody, resident or not, who owns a second home, has always paid. Residents who only own a principal residence do not pay this tax on their property. This may explain why the total tax bill is so much less now.

As for the exact figures (you asked on the other thread how much you may have to pay), usually it is calculated based on the valor catastral, rather than what you actually paid for the property. This figure can be found on your rates (IBI) bill.

Roberto

Thanks for that - I'll let you know as and when I get my next bill

I know this wont help people who are not in a postion to read their own electricity meters for whatever reason, but following on from what to us was an astronomical bill from Sevillana-Endesa (560 Euros) for the period Nov 16 to Jan 16, I decided to keep tabs on our useage just to see if we could make some savings somewhere and also to keep tabs on Sevillana-Endesa who clearly aren't averse to overcharging...As it happens their bill was correct, but it should be noted that we are all-electric with the exception of a Gas Hob, the house is 'active' 24/7, we are halfway up a mountain and so heating figures highly in the costs.

So, here for those who can read their meters is a step by step guide on How to Calculate your Sevillana-Endesa Electric Bill. 

(I would imagine the same holds true for Iberdrola and any other supplier since the bill always includes the same basic information.)

a) From your last electricity bill where the reading is an actual rather than an Estimado, make a note of the actual meter reading.

b) Take note of todays actual meter reading

c) Subtract a) from b) to find actual units used during this period.

d) Calculate number of days between last actual reading (from last bill) and the date of the reading taken at b).

e) Divide number of  units used by number of days to obtain an average daily use.

f) Multiply total number of units used by cost per unit. (Note that cost per unit is dependent upon your contract; If you have a 25A circuit Breaker installed as your Main Incoming C/B your are on a 4.7KW supply and the cost from Sevillana is 0.101159Euros per unit.)

This gives the base cost of electricity used between the date of the last bill and the date of your first reading.

g) Next, take daily readings of the meter until a period of 1month has elapsed since the last actual meter reading taken by Endesa.

h) Calculate base cost of electricity used during that total 1 month period.

Now for the 'Gotchas'

i) To the base cost add Electricity Tax (Impuesto sobre electicidad) at 4.864%

j) Next Add Meter Rental (Alquiler Equipos)

k) Next Add 1 month Standing Charge (Termino de Energia) again this depends on your contracted use but in the case of a 25A supply is 7.54 Euros.

l)Next add VAT (IVA) at 16% to the total sum.

k) This final figure will give a ball park figure for the total cost of the electricity used and what you should reasonably expect to see as a final figure on your next bill; I say ball park because of a couple of variables...my account seems to always include a small amount of 'Consumo Gratuito' whereby a very small amount is deducted from the bill, but against this is an equally small amount added onto the bill as an excess charge (Recargo excesso consumo); it seems strange that they can both appear on the same bill but such is life...(Especially in Spain it seems!)

Also please bear in mind that Electricity charges went up on the 1st of January; this increase has not been taken into account because I cannot establish just what the new figure is (and again it will be different depending on your contracted useage. (When you know what the new figure is calculate the % increase and add it to the total sum; it wont be a million miles out!)

I put all of this into an Excel Spreadsheet and by more judicious use of the heating we have managed to cut the bill by about 30% for the period Jan16 to Feb16.

However under the new revised Scheme of Things this next bill will be an estimado, so I guess Endesa will just use last years figure for the same period in which case we will have another large bill; and of course Endesa will extract the money from my account before they send out the bill; I will then either have to argue the figure with Endesa or wait until the next accounting period Feb 16-March 16 which according to the blurb from Endesa will be an actual rather than an estimate...

On a slightly different note I am one of those people who have found it impossible to get endesaonline registration; it wont accept my NIE number as a valid fiscal unit and if I put in my passport number it tells me that my contract no. is incorrect! So I have completely given up on it.!

Hope this is of some help to someone;

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Sevillana deliberately underestimated the first bills of 2009 (covering usage spanning both the old and new tariffs) so that the shortfall would be made up on the first actual reading in 2009, and be charged at the new, higher, rate. They are being investigated for this, but don't expect any result in favour of the consumer.

The estimated readings are (according to their own literature) supposed to be an average of the last 12 months usage. We used a total of 4212 units in 2008, which by dividing by 12, I reckon gives us an average monthly usage of 351units. Maybe there's some new fancy way of calculating averages, because our first estimated bill was for just 266 units. 21 days of this came under the old tariff, 10 days on the new. This means of course that our first bill charged entirely at the new higher rates will be for over 500 units. At least from now on it won't make any difference (until the next rate increase) but it would be nice to have consistent bills each month.

I haven't had time to study it, let alone make sense of it, but the tariffs are available here