Iria V – Important Information 13/09/16
All our electric meters on Iria V have now been upgraded to Smart meters, and this has important implications for all owners on Iria V.
The upgrade has been done inside the general blocks of electric meters held around the urbanisation. Iberdrola did not need access to your house in order to do this.
Properties built after 2003 have a supply of 5.75 KW installed. Homes built before this date usually have a minimum requirement of 3.3 KW which was the amount that developers were legally required to install. As Iria V was built before 2003, we all originally had a supply of 3.3KW.
The problem with a 3.3KW supply is that if you had several electric items on all at once that required more than this supply, the switch in your electric cupboard would ´trip´. You then would go to this cupboard in your villa and reset the switch. In order to elevate this, some owners had their electric supply upgraded to 5.75KW (some legally by Iberdrola, others not so).
Now that we are regulated by the Smart Meter, it is now this equipment that regulates the amount of your supply you are provided with. You will only be able to receive the level of power that you are contracted with by Iberdrola (3.3 or 5.75).
The reason for this email is to inform owners of this very important change. If you are only contracted with Iberdrola for a 3.3KW supply, then you will be restricted to what electrical appliances you can run at any one time. I know that we had problems trying to run a water heater and maybe an oven. If it exceeded the 3.3KW we were contacted for, then the switch would trip and we would have to reset the switch and then turn off one of the appliances. In order to get over this problem, you would upgrade to a 5.75KW supply.
If you have family or renters in your property and they try to use more than the contracted supply, the switch in your own cupboard might ´trip´, but also the switch on your Smart meter in the urbanisation cupboard will blow. This will cause severe confusion and they will have to go to the urbanisation cupboard and reset the switch on the Smart meter, if they know where this is held. We have been told that the Smart meter switch will reset itself after a while, but we do not know about this yet and we do not know how long this might take.
What can you do?
You can go through the process to get upgraded and legally contracted by Iberdrola for the correct level of supply. It must be noted that the cost on you bills will be higher, as it is more expensive to have a 5.75 KW supply that a 3.3. If you wish to check the difference in price, please visit the Iberdrola web page. In order to upgrade you must have an inspection by a fully qualified (in Spain) electrician.
AMPS has being doing some of the upgrades on this urbanisation and has put together some information to help you understand what the inspection involves.
What is tested:-
- Size of mains cables
- Circuits in villa
- Correct size breakers for cable
- Earth coming into house
- Insulation on conductors
- Type of meter & meter housing
The property is inspected to ensure it is safe and able to be contracted for the 5.75KW power supply. AMPS will then complete the inspection forms and present them to the relevant office in Alicante to obtain the Boletin (official document) which is required by Iberdrola before they will upgrade the power supply. Once the Boletin is completed and received back by the owner, they can take it to the local Iberdrola office and request the upgrade.
You are not restricted as to who you can get to do this work, but they must be a registered, fully qualified and recognised by Iberdrola.
In order to help owners, we have gathered this information for you, to the best of our ability.
AMPS have now realised that there are quite a lot of people on Iria V who want this work doing, so they have agreed to calculate a discounted price, due to the fact that they get better charges from the Alicante office if they present a number of applications at once.
The Cost
By AMPS for the inspection & obtaining the official document from the Alicante Iberdrola office.
Normal price €170
Iria V price €140
Iria V price for 10 or more in one visit €100
If you wish to discuss this with AMPS directly or want any more information, their number is 697 543 723.
Anyone who is already contracted with Iberdrola for a 5.75KW supply is not affected. If you do not know what you are legally contracted for, please refer to your Iberdrola bill.
We hope this helps you understand the problem and what you can do to overcome it. If you wish to stay on the original 3.3KW supply, you do not need to do anything. If you were upgraded illegally to 5.75KW then your supply will default back to the original 3.3 KW. It must be said that the 3.3KW might be enough for some people anyway and if you have not upgraded before and have never suffered from your electric tripping, then perhaps the lower supply is sufficient for you.
Mary Crawford
Sheila Hassall
Sue Spencer