There's been a lot of chit chat and consternation about what we have to do (or don't have to do) with Iberdrola.  Now having visited the Iberdrola service point in the Master Cadena shop in Pilar de la Horadada High St. we have asked a few questions and got a few answers....  or so we thought...

According to the staff at Pilar:

ALL Iberdrola Contract holders need to register before March 31st 2010 for a new free market contract with Iberdrola. If you do not register for this then Iberdrola will charge you 5% more. There was no mention of a 10Kw threshold. Take an electricity bill and ID (Passport / NIE) with you.

**** Update **** See the Forum Discussion for the latest.

Reading between the lines I'd say that:

Iberdrola 'want' you to register with them as opposed to any other supplier.  The utility market is opening up to other companies. The government are introducing a 'free market' and you are free to shop around. Of course, Iberdrola, who has pretty much held the monopoly for electricity provision in Spain, is acting to protect its stakes. That said even if you do register with them you may be put on a higher tariff !  Read on...

We were told that we must keep an eye on the amount per Kwh that will appear on our bill; there are different Tariffs and we may find we are being charged a higher amount regardless of our registration. "Around 12cent/KWh" is expected any higher than that and we should return to the Iberdrola desk and get the tariff dropped. (Current values are 11,473cent.€/kWh) Billing and meter reading wil be every two months.

Iberdrola has been publishing (probably compelled to) on the reverse side of your bills a list of 28 alternative suppliers. It is a long list and pretty daunting if you want to actually compare prices. So what are your options?

I have done some digging around and have found this website: www.mybestoption.es  which appears to be a little treasure. You can get comparison prices from many other companies for all Spanish utilities including Electricity, ADSL, Gas, plus car insurance, mobile contracts ...

From what I can tell the electricity prices do not differ that much between companies if at all currently but may do in the future. We are sticking with Iberdrola for the time being but keeping an eye on the alternatives.

Note: in the process of getting comparison quotes you will be asked if your usage is over 10kW because there are different price schemes.  Check your bill - I think that you are looking for your 'Potencia contratada' value - ours is 5.5kW. It could be 3.5 or more. NOT your 'Energia consumida' value which is in units of kWh (Kilowatt hours) and of course not convertible into kW. You can't convert Energy into Power despite what Iberdrola believe.