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The Spanish government introduced nationwide changes to electricity charging and billing on 1 June 2021. These changes have to be applied by all electricity suppliers. There is a view among the public that this is a price hike. In fact, there have been street demonstrations protesting against the changes.
However, this is not necessarily the case, says Paul Whitelock. There really is an opportunity to save money on our bills, so that we end up paying less than we used to.
Since 1 June new regulations and new pricing will be applied to our electricity consumption. The main change is to tariffs. From now on there are three tariffs, peak (punta), standard (llano) and off-peak (valle).
Three energy periods
The new 2.0 TD tariff will have three different time periods for consumption, split over six time bands in which the cost of electricity will be different throughout the day. The schedule for new billing periods depends on the day of the week, the month, and the geographical area.
Billing periods from Monday to Friday in the peninsula, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands:
- VALLE: It is the cheapest period and includes the nighttime hours with lower electricity consumption, from midnight to 8 am AND AT WEEKENDS AND ON BANK HOLIDAYS.
- PUNTA: It is the most expensive period and is from 10 am to 2 pm and from 6 pm to 10 pm
- LLANO: This period has an intermediate price and is from 8 am to 10 am, 2 pm to 6 pm and from 10 pm to midnight
If we re-organise our consumption, so that we use as much off-peak power as possible, we can all save money. 130€ per year per household on average, according to the National Markets and Consumption Commission (CNMC). 200-300€ per year if you can avoid “simultaneous consumption”, ie more than one device running at the same time. Not sure why this should be the case, but, hey, I’m just a blogger…
Obvious things to change include using off-peak power for washing machines, driers and dishwashers.
If you have a pool, let the pump run in the early hours.
If you have a watering system for the garden, why not run it in the early hours?
Other tips to save energy consumption include reducing the temperature setting on your fridge to 5C (what? – ours is set to 3C, which is more than adequate, even in summer!)
An iron uses lots of power. If you do your ironing before 8 am you could save 36€ a year.
Reduce the thermostat on your central heating to 20C in winter and 25C in summer.
Use the ECO setting on appliances like dishwashers, washing machines and tumble driers.
Watch less TV. Televisions are notoriously expensive to run, so having yours on in the background with nobody really watching it is costing you big-style.
Leaving devices and appliances on standby also consumes electricity. Unplug every time.
Making adjustments
We’ve already made changes in our house.
Our pool pump now runs in the early morning, the irrigation system too.
We’ve started putting the washing machine on when we go to bed. The dishwasher also. We don’t do much ironing, but it will now get done before 8.00 am.
Our freezer is already set to -18C and our fridges to 3C, way below the recommended 5ᵒC.
Recommended suppliers
We were ripped off by ENDESA for 10 years. I understand that IBERDOLA did the same to many of its customers. Based on our own experience and that of friends (real ones as well as the Facebook variety), we recommend the following suppliers:
