Now that electricity is more expensive than ever, it is convenient to know how much energy our house consumes when, for example, we telework or cook, in order to be able to choose to change appliances, to change hours of use or at least to know why we are paying Therefore, within what depends on us, domestic consumption.
Seeing the consumption of our house in real time in kW is possible in two ways. The first is the most traditional, with physical access to our meter. The second involves the Internet. In this sense, it is necessary to know that the distributors offer from their web pages the possibility of checking our consumption in real time, as well as the power peaks reached recently, so that we can raise or lower it according to needs.
Before digging in, it is relevant to distinguish the trading companies from the distributors. In my case, I live in the province of Seville, where the only company (as it is a monopoly) that distributes, that is, the one that offers me electricity, is Endesa Distribución. Now, we manage the contract with the marketers, which, unlike the previous ones, can change depending on our tastes, such as a telephone operator.
What is the website of my distributor
The important thing is to know which is our distributor. Although there are 333 in Spain, most of the clients are divided between five large distributors. To check which one works for you if it is not one of the big ones, it is best to check it on the electricity bill. We just have to look for the CUPS code, an acronym for Universal Supply Point Code. As they start, we can find out which distributor we have:
- Nedgia: ES0230
- Northgas: ES0229
- Redexis: ES0238
- Endesa: ES0031
- Iberdrola: ES0021
- Union Fenosa: ES0022
To have an approximation without consulting, you can look at the following Elekluz map.
Let’s see which are the websites of the main distributors in Spain, and whether or not they have an application for smartphones:
In them, the username and password that we have from our marketer will not be valid., although both are, for example, Endesa. The webs of the distributors require a registration process, generally simple, but it can take up to 48 while they validate our data. In my case it was a lot faster than two days. Within that period I received an email confirming my registration and validating my ID.
What data do I need to register on the website of each distributor?
This is what each of the large distributors asks for on their websites (as far as we can access) so that those of us who are customers can register on the different websites:
- Endesa Distribution: name and surname, NIF / Passport / NIE (attach document by uploading a file), contact email, mobile and address.
- Iberdrola Distribution: an electricity bill (where the CUPS appears), mobile, email.
- Unión Fenosa Distribution: name and surname, identification document (NIF / CIF / NIE), email.
- E-Networks EDP Distribution: identification document (NIF / CIF / NIE / Passport / Resident card), CUPS code, email and mobile phone.
- Viesgo Distribution: NIF and email.
See electricity consumption in real time or power peaks: this is what we can do from the distribution companies’ websites
Once we are registered, we can see what each website offers. In my case, I have only been able to use Endesa Distribución, but almost all the websites that I have seen without registering promised similar functions, and with a similar visualization of the number of data that we can know. It is necessary to mention that we have to have remote managed meters in our house or building. This should not cause too much trouble, because according to Royal Decree 1110/2007, Order ITC 3860/2007 and IET 290/2012, the mechanical meters had to be replaced by remote-managed ones before December 31, 2018.
With websites like these we can learn to save a lot on the electricity bill, as we can do tests to detect which appliances consume more than necessary or, if we never reach our contracted power, hire a lesser amount.
When you log in to a website such as that of Endesa’s distributor, we are presented with many options, from which we can access various options regarding our contract.
The one that most interested me, to measure the electrical consumption of each appliance, computer or gadget in the house was the option ‘Online access to the meter‘, which allows us to know the electricity consumption in real time, or as the website says, the’ Current Instantaneous Power ‘. At the time of writing this article, for example, I have been able to verify that working with this computer, a Microsoft Surface and with only the refrigerator in use (next to the router, which is always on), my current instantaneous power is 0.22 kW, or what is the same, 220 watts.
Before, while cooking with the oven, with a microwave and with a hob fire, the power shot up above 100%, and the truth is that I have had cuts in that sense, Well, I only have 4 kW contracted, which in other houses where I have lived was more than enough, but no longer if I have no control turning off appliances soon.
We can consult as many times as we want, although in my experience, if we do it many times in a row, it can lead to errors. Another option that is offered to us from that same panel is to ‘Reconnect ICP’, very useful for when we have jumped due to excess power.
The second thing that interested me the most is the section on ‘Maximum power demanded‘, where you can see what is the maximum power that my house has demanded from the network each month. As we see in the screenshot, one day in November I touched 5 kW, which is 1.55 kW more than what I have contracted. This serves to decide whether to increase the power contracted in the contract, which in my case would be necessary if I do not want to be controlling which electrical appliances I have turned on, or to stay as we are.
In section ‘Your consumption‘, we can see the consumption of the billing period or of the dates we choose, something that we can also generally see in applications such as that of Endesa’s marketer. Even so, this section of the web is very interesting, because in addition to being able to see by days instead of by weeks and by months, which allows us to see how much we consume per hour, it also allows us to download all the data in .CSV format for process them with Excel.
An earlier version of this article was published in June 2021.