How to interpret the electricity bill
Access contract, CUPS, kW, contracted power, ICP ... the electricity bill may look like a hieroglyph of ancient Egypt but it is something that every neighbor must face every month, so, why not Do we make things easier? From .com we want to help you to know how to interpret the electricity bill step by step, taking into account the basic data that must be included in any vendor's invoice .
Personal information
Your name, address, bank account and ID must always appear, as happens with any of your invoices for other services.
Installation details
- CUPS or Universal Code of the Supply Point: It is a unique code and serves to identify a point of energy supply (either gas or electricity) in Spain. Start with the sequence ES, plus another 20 characters, numbers or letters. It would be the "ID" of your accountant.
- Power (in KW) : is the amount of energy you have contracted.
- Access contract : It is not more than the contract number that the distributor associates with your house or business and with your contracted conditions (your data, your rate, etc).
Billing information
In this section you will find the date of issue of your invoice and the billing period . The most usual is to do it either on a monthly basis, that is, with an invoice every month or bimonthly, in case of invoices that include periods of 2 months.
Contracted rate
2.0A but there are several modalities. It will depend on your contracted power or whether you have chosen time-based discrimination or not.
Whatever you have contracted, at least two concepts must appear on your bill, regulated by the rate you have chosen and which we explain below.
Power Cost (or Power Term)
It is a fixed amount on your bill. This part is collected by the marketer on behalf of the Distribuidora company. This company charges for using its electrical networks and allowing light to reach your home. The price per kW contracted is defined by the Government (it is reviewed every three months). Multiplying it by the power you have contracted will give you the cost of Power to pay (in euros).
Energy cost (or Energy term)
It is the variable part of your invoice. To calculate this cost you only have to multiply your energy consumption in kWh by the price of your tariff in euros per kWh. For example, if the consumption is 100 kilowatt hours (kWh), considering that the price of kWh is set at 0.1442349 €, the cost will be 14.23 €.
Electricity tax
It is a tax that is collected to give aid to coal mining. It is applied to the sum of the power term plus the energy term and is added to the tax base for the calculation of VAT.
Counter rental
Usually, the accountant is the property of the Distributor. So we pay a rent for this equipment, whose amount is determined in the BOE and, generally, it is updated every year. Currently prices are usually € 0.50 approx. monthly for analog meters and € 0.80 for digital meters .
VAT
And finally, the Value Added Tax, which in the case of electricity is 18%. On the basis of VAT apply ALL the above concepts (also the Electricity Tax ).
These are the basic concepts that you will find in your electricity bill. If you have any questions about any of them do not hesitate to consult it in the comments of this post.
