Hi, does anyone know what the compensation rates if any are from Endessa if you lose power. For example if the power goes off without warning are you entitled to compensation. Just wondering if anyone has done this. Tried looking on the Endessa site but cant find anything.

If it is a "proper" power cut rather than a very local problem, it just appears on your bill as a credit (a very small one!).

Thanks Fred. Do you know roughly how much compensation you would get for one hour and 15 mins. I know this sounds a bit silly but would just like to know the answer.

Crikey, can,t imagine what our bill would be like without all our compensation.

How do I know whether it is a "local" issue or other? A power cut still looks the same.

In 2007 we had 14 powercuts with a total duration of 5.7 hours.

The total compensation was €1.47

I have no idea how that was calculated.

Thanks Fred that´s super

Wow, we used to go days without power. Compensation? Never heard of that.

In fact, on one occasion, one of their lines deteriorated down the road from our neighbourhood and about 5 homes lost power for nearly a week, and before they'd fix it, all affected had to agree to €225 per household 'maintenance' charge.

Things must be getting better. But 'compensation'? How posh!

I found it at last. Real Decreto 1955/2000 Article 105.

You have to exceed a specific number of hours of cumulative cuts in one year. That depends on whether you have an urban supply or a non urban supply, but in my case it looks like the trigger point is over 8 hours in one year.

The calculation is pretty simple. There are 8544 hours in a year that you should be receiving a supply for. If you lost 8 hours in the year you get a compensation of 8/8544 of you previous years total electricity bill.

Simple yes - generous no.

Last month we had a power cut: the power came on again after 8 hours and then went off again almost immediately for about half an hour. The worst thing was that the carbon monoxide alarm beeped every 60 seconds during the entire cut.