Last November 12, Royal Decree-Law 7/2024, dated November 11, came into force, which establishes urgent measures to address the damages caused by the DANA between October 28 and November 4, 2024. The most relevant energy measures are detailed below:
Measures related to the supply of electricity:
- Flexibilization of contracts
Until December 31, 2025, the flexibilization and temporary suspension of electricity supply contracts is allowed at no cost to the affected consumers. This includes:Suspension or modification of contracts without penalty.Changes in power attended without prior time restrictions, regardless of whether the consumer had modified the technical conditions of their access contract in the last 12 months.Consumers may request reactivation of contracts at no cost after the suspension period, unless higher power or revision of metering equipment is required.
- Temporary suspension of contracts
Temporary suspension of contracts and access to the network is enabled for affected supply points, free of charge. Reactivation will take place once security is restored.
- Guarantee of supply
The protection of vulnerable consumers is extended, allowing the continuity of supply even in the event of non-payment.The supply of electricity, petroleum products, including manufactured gases and liquefied petroleum gases, natural gas and water may not be suspended to consumers who are individuals in their habitual residence, when this is located in the municipalities included in the annex to Royal Decree-Law 6/2024.The supply may only be suspended for reasons of safety of persons and installations.
- Deferral of payments
Consumers will be able to request the suspension of the payment of invoices until December 31, 2025, and the distributors will be responsible for communicating to the distributor the information of the holders of supply points, and the associated CUPS, who have requested the suspension of payment.Electricity retailers will be exempted from the obligation to pay the access toll to the transmission and distribution networks and electricity system charges corresponding to deferred invoicesThey will also be exempted from the payment of VAT, if applicable, corresponding to invoices whose payment has been suspended by virtue of this measure, until the full invoice has been paid or six months have elapsed since the entry into force of this Royal Decree-Law.The amounts owed will be regularized within six months, and consumers will not be able to change supplier until the payments are completed.
Measures related to the supply of natural gas:
- Contract flexibility
Consumers are allowed to adjust their contracts without additional costs until December 31, 2025, including:Modifications of the contracted daily flow up to three times.Changes in the applicable toll step.The adjustments will not affect the 2025 and 2026 relocations and rebillings, unless requested by the consumer.The marketers will inform the end of these measures at least three days in advance.
- Temporary suspension at no cost
The suspension of gas contracts will be exclusively administrative, without cuts or additional charges. During the period of suspension, the holder of the supply point will not be charged any amount for fixed term, maintenance contract, regularizations, inspections, registration and connection fees or meter rental.
Reactivation will be automatic or upon request, with no charge for the right of registration.
- Supply guarantee
Supply is guaranteed to vulnerable consumers, with the possibility of interruption only for safety reasons.
- Deferral of invoices
Consumers may defer payment of invoices until 2025, with regularization in 2026, limited to consumption equal to or less than the previous year.once the period is over, the amounts owed will be regularized in equal parts in the invoices issued the following twelve months.it will not be possible to change supplier while payments are pending.unlike the deferral of invoices in electricity supply, in gas supply it is not specified that the supplier is exempted from payment of tolls or VAT on invoices whose payment has been suspended by the customer.
Operative to be applied:
E-Distribution has already transferred the operation to be applied:
The temporary suspension and subsequent reactivation will be processed through the current movements defined by the CNMC of deregistration (B1-01) and registration (A3).
The power modifications indicated in the aforementioned article will be processed by means of the current modification movements defined by the CNMC (M1-N).
For the correct identification of the CUPS affected by these measures, the PDF document of RDL 7/2024, published in the Spanish Official Gazette, will be requested from the URL defined in the communication formats between agents for contracting movements and will be typified with the value "06.- Invoices", included in the table "61.- Types of documentation", defined by the CNMC. This typology, not normally used in contracting movements, will exceptionally and unequivocally allow it to be used for the above purposes during the period of validity of the aforementioned. In any case, failure to attach the supporting documentation will not imply rejection of the transaction.