In these times, with the price of electricity through the roof, it is more than important to know at all times if what we are paying is correct or if we are paying more. For this, there are practical tools that will help us find out without having to break our heads trying.
One of these very useful options that we have at our disposal on the Internet is the Electricity Bill Simulator of the CNMC (National Commission for Markets and Competition). With this online tool, we will be able to simulate the electricity bill for those supplies that are covered by the Voluntary Price for Small Consumers (PVPC) and bills of last resort for vulnerable consumers. In this way, it will be easier to know if we are really saving electricity or our consumption is excessive.
Choose the accountant and check the invoice
One of the first points that we must take into account is the type of electricity meter that we have in our home. Basically, because we can find two different options:
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Traditional meter: it does not have consumption reading for each hour.
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Smart meter: it has to be integrated into the remote management system and, in this case, it does record hourly consumption.
If with the image you are not clear about the type of electricity meter we have in the house, it can also be consulted in the Contract Data of the invoice. Usually, it is usually located at the bottom of the first page of the electricity bill that we receive from the company that we have contracted.
Therefore, once we take this information into account, it will be time to move on to use the CNMC simulator to find out if the consumption we have made is the price we have paid for electricity that month. We will start with the traditional one, and then move on to the smart meter:
- traditional accountant
We will have to fill in a series of fields: billing date, postal code, consumption at peak, flat and valley hours, in addition to the powers (peak and valley), as well as whether we are beneficiaries of the Social Light Bonus and the type of meter (single phase or triphasic). Once we have filled in all the information, we will touch Continue and they will tell us the total price of the invoice that we should have paid.
- smart meter
Within this specific simulator, they will ask us for the postal code and also an attached file with the hourly consumption that we have had. This file can be downloaded from the website of the electricity distributor. For this, the CNMC provides us with the consumer data consultation website. Also, keep in mind that you will have to register on the distributor’s website to have access to this particular data.
In which cases does the tool not work?
Now that we have learned about the great utility of this simulator that the CNMC makes available to us, the truth is that we will not be able to use it in some cases. However, it allows us as consumers to check the electricity bill when we have a contracted power of less than or equal to 10 kW, as long as the service is being supplied by one of the following retailers (regulated market):
- Regulated Trading Company, SLU
- Curenergía Marketer of Last Resort, SAU
- Energy XXI Referential Marketer, SL
- Regulated Distributor, Gas & Power, SA
- Baser Comercializadora de Referencia, SA
- Marketer of Energy Reference, SLU
- Energía Ceuta XXI Comercializadora de Referencia, SA (Ceuta only).
- Teramelcor, SL (only Melilla).
However, this simulator will not work for those consumers who have the annual fixed price option offered by their reference supplier (<10kW), as well as those users who have one of the different free market offers (<10kW) or if they have a contracted power of more than 10 kW, even when they are supplied by one of the reference marketers.