A neighbour from Sotillo – 16 Solar Panels

Please share this great news. No more electricity scams!

The electricity company was demanding him to fix the 92 electrical connections in the town, with a cost of 30000 Euros, 25500 British Pounds approximately; to provide his electricity connection.

Today we can be very happy with the victory this small consumer has archived against one of the giants of the business world. This neighbour from Sotillo de la Ribera, José Antonio Santamaría has won the fight against IBERDROLA, turniging his back to the electrical company and installed 16 Solar Panels on his single family house.

This idea never went through his mind when he started building his house in 2011 after dealing with lots of problems with the Town Hall, but the demands from IBERDROLA left him no other option. «IBERDROLA was forcing me to install a new higth tension line; arguing that he couldn’t be connected to the existing one because the line in this part of the town has very low power», he explains. «They said that if another house were added; it would have affected the rest of their customers».

The other option was fixing the 92 connections on the existing line. «The cost was 30000 Euros, when registering for the service shouldn’t be more than 1000 Euros», he maintains. «this company has already got problems with the electrical net and is up to them to sort them out. Nevertheless, as I arrived, they wanted me to pay for everything».

A lot of money and I wasn’t whiling to assume the costs. «As they put to many obstacles on my way, I started thinking that there were no other alternative», he remembers. But, at the last minute, when everything was ready to carry out the works, he said NO. «It didn’t make any sense, me taking care of all that » he asserts, arguing that all this problems with this company, forced him to rent a flat in Aranda during two years. Having to commute every day to Sotillo de la Ribera, where he works as a farmer.

Then I started hearing about solar Panels and, finally got them installed on January», he narrates. This decision allowed him to move into his new house, FINALLY! «At the moment I’ve got 16, and they’ve been working perfectly; giving me 5000 Watts. Just to be in the safe side I also installed a diesel generator». He says his investment wasn’t even 15000 Euros, half of the money IBERDROLA was charging to connect him to the grid.

«I really believe that it’s been paid already as the cost of fixing the electrical line was more expensive…», he says. «Even better, now every month my energy bill is zero Euros», he proudly affirms.

Despite his silence victory, Mr Santamaria knows that IBERDROLA’s proposal wasn’t fair. «I did my research with the Ministry of Industry and they said I was right, but, who wins a trial against IBERDROLA? »he questioned himself. Maybe he would have done it, but he decided to rule out the tribunals. He went for renewables and stand against an Electrical Giant.

Congratulations Champion!