What is the meaning of "Potencia" on Endesa Spanish electricity bills?
On my Spanish electricity bill, I have Consumo which I know is the number of units used - 135kwh*0,140069 €/kwh = 18.91.
But I also have Potencia 17 kw * 32 * 0,074412 y dia = 40.48.
I do not understand this "Potencia".
5 Answers
Potencia means power, and it can be measured in vatios (watts), kW, MW, GW, TW... A watt is a joule per second.
Consumo is the total energy used, which although in the S.I. system is measured in joules, electric companies prefer kWh, which is power multiplied by time. 1 kWh is 1000 W multiplied by 1 hour, which is 3600 s, giving 3.6 MJ of energy.
That 135 kWh is the total energy used (=486 MJ) and 0,140069 €/kWh is the price in euros for each kWh, giving a total of 18.91 €.
The part where it says potencia 17 kW is a bit strange, because that amount of power is too much for an average household (which is about 0.9 kW on average). Considering that it is using about 18 times more power than a normal house, it has to be a large shop, at least. That 32 and that 0,074412 are a mystery to me.
Do they have any units on that 40,48 or any other information, so we can make sense out of it? Any other information, like the amount of time specified in the bill or other clues might also help.
Part from Lorenzo's link of interest:
Facturación: potencia
Término de potencia calculado por días. Es el resultado de multiplicar la potencia contratada (kW) por el número de días de la factura y por el precio del kW/día en euros.
Correct. Is the of amount in which the electric company supplies/makes available to that particular house.
I don't know in Spain, but in Argentina, if you have an industrial supply (3 phases service), you have a maximum power peak you can reach.
The higher this peak, the more expensive the service is. If you exceed it at any time you get charged an extra fee.
You are paying to the company to have that amount of power available for you. Maybe it's the same.
