Electricity Supply Liberalisation

[Geoff]

I gather that this is happening in Portugal from 1 July 2012 , with 5 companies now competing for business, rather than the EDP monopoly.
But does anyone know what the tariffs that are on offer are?

[joeysoap]

sorry can't answer Geoff but if Ireland is anything to go by you will have to switch every year to get the maximum benefits. Loyalty counts for zilch.

[jonboy]

Noticed that my EDP bills are around Euro 200 -240 irrespective of the tim eof year. Only have a pool pump, fridge, alarm running in warmer months but stlll high.
Do others have similar size bills?


JB

[ron5000]

Yep, between 160 and 195 every month all year round and I have gas cooking and water heating

[R.Wethereyet]

I have a 4 bed villa, pool pump, american fridge freezer, 2nd fridge, ceramic hob, oven, 2 plasma tv's on most night (damn kids) 2 laptops on all day, gate entry lights on dusk to dawn, and house lights inside/outside 4/5 hours a day. Plus the usual phone chargers etc.

My average bill is 120€ per month.

[maccasa]

I have a very similar installation to the above and similar prices. Have you got your kW rating stated too high - you pay a fixed charge each month for the level of connected power. Mine is set at 20.7 kW and I pay a daily rate of €0.9355 so for 60 days it's €56 as a standing charge + what we use.

[joeysoap]

I received an e-mail from EDP few days ago. All in Portuguse unfortunately. It clearly has to do with the liberalisation of the market. From what I gather anyone currently ( ) with EDP will have to find a new supplier or sign a new contract with EDP commerical. Two different dates for cut off but I also gather that there is 3 years of continuing service in the meantime. Have I got the gist of this correct? Also would appear that they intend to charge more for electricity in peak times and charge less at off peak times.

anyone find out or sign up with alternative suppliers yet?

[Ma-Ja's]

I received an e-mail from EDP few days ago. All in Portuguse unfortunately. It clearly has to do with the liberalisation of the market. From what I gather anyone currently ( ) with EDP will have to find a new supplier or sign a new contract with EDP commerical. Two different dates for cut off but I also gather that there is 3 years of continuing service in the meantime. Have I got the gist of this correct? Also would appear that they intend to charge more for electricity in peak times and charge less at off peak times.

anyone find out or sign up with alternative suppliers yet?

From what we have found out yes you are correct in what you are saying. Not so sure about charging more for electricity in peak times and less at off peak times though. We have signed a new contract with EDP commercial who were offering a 2% discount forever. We phoned a couple of the other suppliers, who were offering anything ranging from not speaking any English at all to 2-5% discounts but only for a year. We decided to stay with the "devil we know" and wait to see what happens in the future. Even if you choose to stay with EDP, you still have to contact EDP Commercial and sign a new contract with them. If you don't do this then you stay with EDP universal and they will then put you on a "temporary tarif" that will be changed/updated every 3 months so who knows what you will end up paying.

Hope this is of some help.

[joeysoap]

Thanks for great reply, really good information. I assume I have to go to an EDP office to sign up (their website is all in Portuguese and while there may be a section on it to sign up to EDP commerical I would be reluctant to trust myself that I was doing it correctly) I believe they have an main office in Portimao and assume this is the place to go to set up new contract?

I am also assuming of course that anyone can sign up to EDP Commercial and not just businesses ?

joey

[Ma-Ja's]

Thanks for great reply, really good information. I assume I have to go to an EDP office to sign up (their website is all in Portuguese and while there may be a section on it to sign up to EDP commerical I would be reluctant to trust myself that I was doing it correctly) I believe they have an main office in Portimao and assume this is the place to go to set up new contract?

I am also assuming of course that anyone can sign up to EDP Commercial and not just businesses ?

joey

No worries! Mark phoned the number on the letter 808 53 53 53 and asked to speak to someone who spoke English. They got someone to call him back and they then talked him through the offer. Once we said we would sign up, you give your bank details and then they call you back and tell you the contract is in the post and it will be with you in 2 weeks (which it is!). You get 2 copies of the contract, 1 you keep the other you sign and send back in the prepaid envelope. We have had final bills from EDP universal and I now assume that our bills will be from EDP commercial. The contracts are in Portuguese but it is easy to see what they are going to charge you and then be able to work out what you will pay. We have signed new contracts for both the restaurant and our house.

[Aldo]

Thanks Jan
That's a great help especially when as many folks on the forum we speak little Portuguese and are UK based.
We have never used your restaurant but when we are over in Sept and Oct will definitely give you a go just as a thank you for all your sensible input onto the forum.

[pato]

Thanks for great reply, really good information. I assume I have to go to an EDP office to sign up (their website is all in Portuguese and while there may be a section on it to sign up to EDP commerical I would be reluctant to trust myself that I was doing it correctly) I believe they have an main office in Portimao and assume this is the place to go to set up new contract?

I am also assuming of course that anyone can sign up to EDP Commercial and not just businesses ?

joey

Bit amateurish on their part isn't it, you'd think they'd invest in a multi=lingual version considering the number of foreigners who own villas in the Algarve.

[joeysoap]

......... We have signed a new contract with EDP commercial who were offering a 2% discount forever. We phoned a couple of the other suppliers, who were offering anything ranging from not speaking any English at all to 2-5% discounts but only for a year. We decided to stay with the "devil we know" and wait to see what happens in the future.

Hope this is of some help.

Thanks Jan, a lot of help.

The bit about discounts for a year is typical of Ireland, where you would want to change every 12 months in order to retain a discount. New customers only - no loyalty whatsoever - so it is pleasing to see EDP are offering the discount forever. I too will stick with the 'devil we know' as they have been done what it says on the tin.

I wonder with all the new competition do they all have their invididual call out numbers. Suspect that regardless of the company you choose to supply your electricity that EDP will be responsible for the network supply.

[RichardHenshall]

... EDP are offering the discount forever. ...

A discount from what?

Call me a cynic but wasn't the point of regulation to keep prices from a monopoly supplier down in the absence of competition? Given that, as yet, there appears to be little viable competition, is it necessary or desirable to abandon the protection of a regulated system in favour of free market pricing with one hugely dominant supplier, who, in the short term at least, will be able to raise prices at will?

Unfortunately we make very good use of the bi-horário tariff (consuming two-thirds of total at low rate) so we are keeping fingers crossed that an alternative to that emerges. In the meantime we're sticking with EDPSU for as long as possible.