The fixed costs of electricity went up 64% in 2014, and another 110% in 2015. Spain all of a sudden has the highest-priced electricity in Europe. This comes after the Partido Popular’s first actions on gaining power: they ended incentives for renewable energy, and they did so retroactively, with the effect of exterminating the competition of the 60,000 families in Spain who had invested in solar panels and other energy production. How to explain this? Just check out the number of ex-politicians on the payroll of the energy companies (Aznar was an Endesa lobbyist until 2014.) So what can a citizen do? Reduce your electric bill, for one.
- Change your electric company. You only have a choice of one distributor: Endesa. But for “comercializadora”, you have a number of options. So change from Endesa to renewable energy cooperative, SomEnergia (somenergia.coop). (You have to become a “socio” before you can contract their service.)
- Reduce your “potencia contratada”. An average household needs 5 - 7 kW of power contracted. If your potencia is over 10kW, you can negotiate the cost of consumed kilowatt-hours with your electric company. If under 10kW, the cost is set by the government. See http://www.bajatelapotencia.org for more information.
- Switch to “discriminacion horario”. Most households will see a reduction by changing from a single fixed price to two prices: in winter, cheaper electricity from 22:00 to noon (expensive from noon to 22:00). In summer, cheap times are from 23:00 to 13:00. Then just set your dishwasher and washing machine in the morning.
- Be careful with “standby”. A lot of appliances, like a vitrocer?mica, have a standby cost: electricity use even when they are off. So turn off all computers and monitors at night, and shut off the fuses (except for the fridge) when you go on vacation.
