Electric companies told to pay back customers for redundant trip switch fees

By Oliver McIntyre

ELECTRIC companies in Spain have been told to pay back consumers who have been wrongly charged rent for ICP trip switches after the companies switched the customers to digital meters, which make the ICP unnecessary.

The ICP, a trip switch that limits power consumption to the level contracted by the customer, has been mandatorily installed in homes and businesses recent years, and consumers had the option to buy one or else rent one from the electric company. But the new digital meters, which are gradually replacing the tradition meters, have their own power-limiting system, meaning the ICP is redundant.

Following a complaint by consumer watchdog Facua, the National Energy Commission (CNE) stated that "in those cases where the companies simultaneously charged customers for rent of the ICP and of the new meter, the amounts charged for the ICP should be 

The CNE statement also refers back to a report it issued in 2009 stating that "the implementation of the new meters should be accompanied by the removal of the ICP in the customer's home because the new meter includes the power-limiting function".

Facua has now called on Endesa, Iberdrola, Gas Natural Fenosa, Hidrocantábrico and E.On to return to customers the wrongly charged rental fees for the ICP.

 FOOTNOTE:  It seems that electricity bills are to revert back to the bi-monthly system of payment due to inconsistencies in customers actual and estimated readings making the understanding of the bill difficult.

Read more in the January 26 print edition of CDSN

Story courtesy of Costa del Sol News            visit the website : www.costa-news.com