In case you live on this island, you will have received a letter from your Mallorcan electricity supplier, either GESA or Endesa, a month or so ago. You were told that you now can freely choose who you want your electricity supplier to be, and a choice of six or eight companies was quoted. The deregulation of the Spanish electricity market came into effect on July 1st, 2009.

But, don’t get excited. All is not what it seems to be.

Electricity consumers in Spain and here in Mallorca will be able to choose their supplier from now on, when the company supplying the electricity and the company marketing it cease to be the same entity. It is hoped that the move will increase competition amongst electricity companies who will have to reduce prices and add incentives in order to attract customers. As from July 1st, the companies that currently own the electricity supply network will concentrate on expanding and maintaining this network, reading electricity meters and dealing with faults. Every customer, be it a private household or a business, will have the right to choose the electricity supplier, which will be the company that sells the electricity to the customer.

Customers with a power supply of less than 10 kw (as is normally the case in individual households) will be assigned to the Tarifa de Último Recurso (TUR) with a price fixed by the government. Customers with a power supply of more than 10 kw (some larger individual houses and most companies) can choose the most suitable offer from the various suppliers available. If they do not, their supply will remain unchanged, but they will be charged an additional 5 % per quarter until April 2010. If by then they haven’t chosen a new supplier, another provisional period will begin, lasting until November 2010, during which time they will be charged TUR plus 20 %.

What does it mean? In the case of you running an average household with a power supply below 10 kw, you will have to do nothing, and nothing will change. In fact you are not given any options. Only if you have an electricity supply above the average, you should look around and talk to the various companies given by GESA in their letter to you, or check on their website. Basically, it means if you have a swimming pool or an air conditioning unit, then you are likely to fall into the higher than average category; if not, you probably don’t. Whatever the situation, your electricity bill will go up once again, having gone up twice already during the past 12 months.

The photo was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: May 7th, 2009. The time was 19:03:55.