The new system comes in today, the 1st of October, meaning that those that have the new meters can supposedly choose the cheaper hourly rates.

Basically, the new meters register the hourly changes to the electricity prices, so that on a given day, 07.00h is cheaper than 01.00h, you can choose the cheaper one to put your washing machine on.

Does it really make any difference?

To be frank, not really. If you go to the bother of checking the hourly prices each day online and you decide to put the washing machine on at midnight instead of at 07.00h just before you go to work, you will save approximately two centimos. So if you do that everyday of the month you will save approximately 60 centimos a month.

The problem – apart from having to check the rates each day – is that the majority of your domestic electricity bill is composed of fix rates, such as line rentals, etc, so you will only be able to juggle the part that corresponds to consumption.

Consequently, most people believe that the Government has only managed to complicate everybody’s life rather than sort out the price of electricity to the consumer after having spent years bouncing off one disastrous temporary change to the next.

(News: Spain)