I'm going to get straight to the point on this topic. I'm pretty fed up with having to listen to certain politicians talking about the electricity bill In Spain, more specifically, of the declines that it is experiencing in its dreams of the moon of Valencia.

So without further ado, I rescued My electric bills for the last 3 years, and I have captured some of the data in a spreadsheet to get 3 fairly simple graphs. They are real data on electricity consumption in my current home, where We live two people; our daily habits have remained unchanged during this time (80 m2 apartment).

Here is the table with the data entered, with the invoice date. I have declined to include the meter rental and taxes (electricity and VAT), since they do not affect the energy price trend.

In sepia, I have marked the increases that the receipt has experienced, as well as in green the decreases. In the two columns on the right, I have marked the increases and decreases in percentage terms. We see how in the summer of 2013, the system was given a new twist, penalizing the fixed part and benefiting the slice of the pie belonging to pure and simple consumption. Let's say that We all pay more, regardless of our class., age, profile, etc…, and those who use more electricity (for whatever reason) benefit, paradoxically.

In bold, I wanted to put what a kWh of electricity costs (in my particular case), before taxes, referenced to each year -from 2012 to 2015-; adding the concepts of power and consumption. It can be seen how it gradually escalates, being the increase in 2015 compared to 2012 of more than 20%We can see it in the following graph:

To show the evolution of the electricity bill mentioned (I remind you again, before taxes and the meter rental fee), I bring you here below another graph, where we see the blue line that represents the price of the contracted power or fixed term (we pay it whether we use the grid or not), and in red what the kWh we consume costs us when we plug in the lamp in the living room.

It is interesting to see how, although the overall figure is rising, the price for consumption is somewhat lower today than it was 3 years ago. We can all turn on the stoves at full blast and walk around the house naked, and it will cost us less money. But oh no! Those little people, who do not waste energy (or who cannot pay for it directly), who try to be efficient... it turns out that because they are hooked up to the "system" they have seen their fixed term increase by more than 100%. And all thanks to our friend Minister Soria, who shows himself to be so knowledgeable about the electricity market every time someone like Jordi Évole interviews him.

Finally, the demonstration that the light is not going down, but it is rising at the mercy of someone who is neither you nor I. If I put what I have paid annually these last three years, and compare it with the total electricity consumption, I get the following:

In 2013, my relative and I went a little more wasteful…, but hey, it “only” cost us €322 to be able to live as expected in the 21st century. In 2014 and 2015, it seems that there was more sun, or we went to bed earlier, so our consumption dropped by 5.7% and 8.4%, respectively. But hey! Money doesn't go that far anymore, and we went on to pay 6.6% and 6.5% respectively; I remember that we pulled the plug less.

So now we know how the reality of the electric bill, as far as my home is concerned, is that up and up and up like Peppa Pig's balloon that escapes from a child in the town square.

And I didn't want to get into what it says in the pie chart on the back of the invoice, because that's a different story. Maybe I'll get the courage to show it to you one of these days.

How pleased I felt!