National
Minister gives details of electricity price rises
By h.b.
Jun 28, 2008 - 2:05 PM

The Government has been giving more details about the increase to electricity prices which is to be introduced in Spain from July 1.
Minister for Industry, Miguel Sebastian, said on Friday that electricity bills received by some 25 million people in Spain would increase by an average of 5.6%. This increase comes in addition to the average 3.3% rise imposed at the start of the year.

From July bills will be sent out every month, instead of every two months as now.

There will also be a new so-called social tariff for users who have a contracted power level of less than three kilowatts, and penalisations for those who use more than 1,000 kilowatts every two months. All consumers will be charged a basic 12.5 kilowatts per month.

There is a new ‘tarifa ahorro’ savings tariff to replace the old night rate which was being used by 1.1 million homes. It offers savings of upto 47% on power used between 10pm and 10am, but this does need a special meter capable of recording the hours of power use.

The new tariffs are intended to do away with the deficit on power use in the electrical system which is currently as much as 14 billion €, created, the Minister claimed, by the Partido Popular.