El The Voluntary Price for the Small Consumer (VPSC) is the price-setting mechanism used by the government since 1 April 2014. With this methodology, the price of electricity is calculated on a daily and hourly basis, according to the prices of the daily energy market. Being a regulated price, this rate can only be contracted through Reference Retailers; in the case of IBERDROLA, CURENERGIA Comercializador de Último Recurso S.A.U.
Billing for customers signed up for the VPSC depends on whether or not you have a remotely managed smart meter.
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If you have a smart meter As we already have information on your consumption for each hour, we bill you according to your hourly consumption at the price set by the energy market for every hour.
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If you do not have a smart meter yet As we do not yet know how much you use each hour, we bill you based on an average usage published and continuously updated by the Red Eléctrica de España (REE).
Within the VPSC, you can sign up for 3 types of rates where the price varies considerably in certain time slots.
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General Rate Prices vary little throughout the day, but are somewhat cheaper at night.
All low-voltage consumers who have contracted power equal to or less than 10kW can sign up for the Voluntary Price for the Small Consumer.
The cheapest times are usually those in which energy demand is lower
Mornings
Night-time hours
Weekends
The price for each day and each hour may fluctuate depending on demand and weather conditions: for example, if it is windy, the cost of energy is generally lower; in contrast, if there is no wind or rain, the cost can rise significantly.
- There is no obligation to remain and no penalty clause.
- Contract duration is 1 year, automatically extendable for consecutive 1 year periods.
- In compliance with current legislation the maximum period for change of supplier is 21 days if the distributor finds no technical problem or deficiencies in the connection.
- View the terms and conditions here [PDF]
VPSM prices vary for each hour of each day and depend on the prices published daily by Red Eléctrica de España as from 8:15 pm on the previous day.
Plus, if you go to your personal CURENERGIA area, My Customer Area, there are graphs showing consumption, prices and amounts billed each hour.
You can sign up for this rate here