Asturians are no longer faithful to their electricity company with the rise in prices

by time news

2023-05-12 04:15:00

In a year, Asturians have gone from being the most loyal Spaniards to their electricity company to being the least loyal to their Cantabrian neighbors. The sharp rise in electricity prices in the context of the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine has changed consumer behaviour. During the last quarter of 2022, 44,857 changes of electricity company were registered in Asturias, compared to 18,538 in the same period of the previous year. The increase was 142% according to data published yesterday by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC).

Until 2021, Asturians stood out for their loyalty to the electricity company despite the liberalization of the market that began 26 years ago. The strong relationship with a local company such as Hidroelécrica del Cantábrico –acquired in 2001 by the Portuguese company EDP, which in turn sold most of its client portfolio to TotalEnergies in 2020– largely explained that loyalty. Still in the last quarter of 2021, Asturias was the region with the fewest changes in electricity retailer out of the total number of supply points in the autonomous community, with 2.5%, almost half of the national average of 4.8%. .

The increase in changes of electricity company was 142% and in the case of gas companies 449%


Fidelity disappeared in 2022, when the amount of electricity bills grew as it had not done in many years. The change rate over the total number of light points –734,102– climbed to 6.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, above the national average growth of 5.2% and only surpassed by the 6.5% of neighboring Cantabria.

Of the 44,857 changes of company that were registered in Asturias in the last quarter of 2022, a total of 35,177 were changes of supplier within the free electricity market. The transition from the free market to the regulated market was made by 5,840 customers and the reverse, from the regulated to the free market, was made by 3,811. Within the regulated market, there were only 29 changes of reference trader.

In gas, the increase in changes of marketer has been greater due to the reductions that the Government applied to the regulated tariff. Of the 5,351 transfers that were registered in Asturias in the last quarter of 2021, there were 29,370 in the same period of 2020, an increase of 449%. The rate on supply points (226,509) went from 2.4%, the lowest in Spain, to 13%, the third highest. Of the 29,370 changes, 23,479 were steps from the free to the regulated market.

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