December 15th 2010
We live most of the year in our Benidorm park home within the grounds of a villa owned by Spanish friends, our electricity being supplied from the villa. In anticipation of possible power trip problems, all our lighting is low energy, we cook, heat and wash by gas, and up until the middle of October 2009 we had not experienced any problems even with our aircon on. Then, just as we were leaving to return to the UK for Christmas, our friends were hurriedly getting into their car to buy just such a device for their electrician to insatall. They said that every property in Benidorm had received a letter (mentioned by another member here) and that they would indeed be fined if the installation was not completed by a certain date! (I think Iberdrola had just got round to enforcing the legislation!)
We left Spain not knowing whether we would have an electricity supply to come back to but also feeling for our friends who also did not know what would happen either! They had been used to having anything from 1 to 4 aircons running at once (for cooling or heating in the winter) and anything else they wanted to use, although washing was on a timer to be done at night for the cheaper rate.
Supposedly, in the past, the villa had a contracted rate of 8.5Kw, 5Kw in the daytime and 3.5Kw cheaper night time, although our friends did say that they had received a somewhat confusing letter (during 2009) quoting a different 5Kw total contracted rate for their villa. I think this may have been the letter giving them the option to change supplier under de-regulation and a time limit in which to respond, which of course they didn't.
Anyway, as we are returning to Spain at the end of this month (December), I took the time to speak to our friends by telephone, partly as a normal curtesy and partly to find out what had transpired with the electricity. They told me that they had just that very day had the device connected and sealed and would see how it went. With that, the phone went dead! It didn't take much guessing to know what had happened. After ringing them back and waiting for the panic to die from their voices, they said they only had on one heater and a few lights but then had the timerity to switch on another heater in the bathroom. 'CLICK' everything went off ! We are now hoping that they can or have already sorted something out or we may have to rethink our accomodation!
I think it is possible to apply for a new contract at a higher rate with Iberdrola or indeed another suppler but think the cost of doing this may have detered our friends from doing so in case we did not want to contribute towards the cost. We would of course do this anyway as it is in our interests to protect our future power supply as well as theirs even if it costs a bit extra.
Does anyone know whether a new contract can be arranged and if so what maximum potencia for the villa might be able to be supplied???