British Expats - Iberdrola

Although there is now a "free market" for electricity and you can, in theory, sign up with any supplier the benefits are not great.

The reason for this is that 90% of domestic users are eligible for the TUR tariff which is government controlled. This means that the prices are lower than the suppliers would like and as a result they are not really in a position to give much away.

If you compare the various tariffs you will see that they are all pretty similar and the only benefit from changing will be that they all offer introductory discounts if you switch. These are often only on the monthly charge rather than the unit cost so check carefully. Of course at the end of the 12 month contract the prices will go up again, possibly to more than you would have been paying if you had stayed put.

If you are prepared to change every year then you might make a few more savings but the hassle would put me off.

If you are a heavy user with a potencia of over 10kw then you would have been forced to change to a Free Market supplier over a year ago. In the case of an Endesa user that may have just meant a change to another company within the Endesa structure.

I was in this position and I tried three times to get Endesa to change me over - it was like wading in mud. I gave up trying and contacted Iberdrola who, at that time were cheaper on the off peak unit tariff. They were brilliant and it all got sorted in a week or so. Even the final Endesa bill was properly prorated and so was the new Iberdrola bill.

Needless to say, at the end of the 12 months the Iberdrola tariff increased and in the case of the off peak supply it went up 35%. However it is still competitive with Endesa.

I HAD to change but for most people I doubt that it will be worth it.