Talk Quesada forum

Hello, Has anyone heard of or recently changed to Europa Energy ? I have been told that they don't have Standing Charges, which is ideal for us as we haven't moved to Spain yet and don't rent out our apartment, but still pay between 60 and 80 euros every couple of months to our current electricity supplier.

have a read at this


https://www.europa-energy.com/terms-conditions

Basically there are two parties who you pay electric bills to. The ones that supply the electricity (the power provider which in most cases is Red Electrica) and the company that charges you for the electricity used (Iberdrola, Europa or whatever).
The one that provides the power will charge for the provision regardless of how much electricity is used and that will depend on the amount of power you are contracted for. The company that charges for the electricity does it per units used and doesn't have a standing charge.
Looking through it, apparently you can save about 10 to 15% on the electricity charges with Europa but there wouldn't be any difference in the charge for the power provision or the standing charge.
There are other companies that could save you on the electric costs but not the power provision costs. (cynical head on -If there were no standing charges, the government couldn't charge you tax on it, cynical head off)

Hi

If you would like to save money and you're cautious about how many appliances you have on AT THE SAME TIME then you could lower the POTENCIA ...

eg... Most 3 bed homes have a standard 5.75KWH which on the Iberdrola invoice is called ' Por potencia contratada ' THIS IS STANDING CHARGE PLUS TAXES

This potencia is charged as follows....5.75 x days x units used.

So it means you are allowed to use 5750 watts of power at any one time before the 25A circuit breaker clicks off inside your fusebox. just reset this if clicks off and switch off one of your large appliances.

Easy way to monitor this is to buy a plug and play no electrian needed to set up.... electricity cost monitor ...loads on ebay around £20 to £25.

you can choose to increase or decrease your Por potencia contratada accordingly for your specific needs....change of power charge is just under 12 Euros from the Iberdrola webb site.

Eg....

6900kwh will give you 6900w your cut off circuit breaker will be 32A

5750kwh will give you 5750w your cut off circuit breaker will be 25A

4600kwh will give you 4600w your cut off circuit breaker will be 20A

3450kwh will give you 3450w your cut off circuit breaker will be 16A

ETC.....

The cleaver thing with circuit breakers is they ACTUALLY cut off 1.4 times their rating to allow for current surge...which could be helpfull in normal usage.

Here is the formula ...easy peasy..

EG....5750 divide by house voltage 230v gives you 25A


This is a much better method of saving standing charges if you are using your holiday home by yourself or left empty for longer periods .

Hope this helps...

Fireblade900 ........Professional electrician

fireblade900 wrote:Hi

If you would like to save money and you're cautious about how many appliances you have on AT THE SAME TIME then you could lower the POTENCIA ...

eg... Most 3 bed homes have a standard 5.75KWH which on the Iberdrola invoice is called ' Por potencia contratada ' THIS IS STANDING CHARGE PLUS TAXES

This potencia is charged as follows....5.75 x days x units used.

So it means you are allowed to use 5750 watts of power at any one time before the 25A circuit breaker clicks off inside your fusebox. just reset this if clicks off and switch off one of your large appliances.

Easy way to monitor this is to buy a plug and play no electrian needed to set up.... electricity cost monitor ...loads on ebay around £20 to £25.

you can choose to increase or decrease your Por potencia contratada accordingly for your specific needs....change of power charge is just under 12 Euros from the Iberdrola webb site.

Eg....

6900kwh will give you 6900w your cut off circuit breaker will be 32A

5750kwh will give you 5750w your cut off circuit breaker will be 25A

4600kwh will give you 4600w your cut off circuit breaker will be 20A

3450kwh will give you 3450w your cut off circuit breaker will be 16A

ETC.....

The cleaver thing with circuit breakers is they ACTUALLY cut off 1.4 times their rating to allow for current surge...which could be helpfull in normal usage.

Here is the formula ...easy peasy..

EG....5750 divide by house voltage 230v gives you 25A


This is a much better method of saving standing charges if you are using your holiday home by yourself or left empty for longer periods .

Hope this helps...

Fireblade900 ........Professional electrician

Great Post good explanation

Thank you for your replies. Fireblade 900. That was a little complicated for us. Does it mean that if we change the fuses in our circuit breaker it will trip out more often but that we will save money with Iberdrola ? We have a 2 bed apartment. The previous owners lived there and had some upgrade to the fuse box so that it didn't trip out. Should we have it put back to how it was before ?

You can't change the main fuse in your circuit breaker as it should be fitted by Iberdrola. Even if you could it wouldn't make any difference as you would still be charged by the electricity company for the amount of power contracted for.
You will probably find the previous owners had 3.3Kw contracted and upgraded because things kept tripping out. A toaster and a kettle on will take up most of that 3.3 so if you stick the oven on at the same time as your hot water it will keep tripping. 5.75Kw is recommended for most modern houses to avoid continual tripping. Especially if you have aircon or electric heaters - a 3kw electric fire wouldn't leave much for you to do anything else.

(Older contracts say 3.3Kw as the voltage used to be 220v and that gave 15A, you actually get 3.45Kw now that the voltage has been increased).
The difference per month for your contracted power being 3.45 instead of 5.75 is around €7.50. You'd have to bear in mind the charge the electricity company would charge to change your main fuse to a 15A one and the charge they make for changing contract.
Plus all properties are now being converted to smart meters and you will only get charged for the amount of power you actually use. Ours was done just before last summer and the bills have reduced by over a third since then.

Many thanks for that. It sounds like a Smart Meter may be the way forward for us. We are over in May so will make some enquiries how to get one.. Happy New Year ! All the best for 2017.

Mr Bradley Green wrote:Many thanks for that. It sounds like a Smart Meter may be the way forward for us. We are over in May so will make some enquiries how to get one.. Happy New Year ! All the best for 2017.

I don't think you can go down and get one. They are being rolled out and all properties in Spain have to have them fitted by 2018. They are doing them bit by by but almost 70% have already been done. You may not even get an indication of when they are/have been fitted. Your administrators would have been told when they were due.

If you are not on the night and day tariff and ask to be put on it they will come and fit the Smart Meter straight away and you can alter the potencia if you want, there are more levels now than before, our neighbour dropped a level and has made savings without tripping out we have not done this as we sometimes would have 2 AC units going if family are over.