Electricity, water and gas supplies are basic rights which have to be guaranteed to everyone, especially during this confinement period that forces us to spend more time at home. Barcelona City Council offers the necessary information and attention for everyone to exercise their energy rights at the Energy Advice Points (PAEs), which at present have suspended face-to-face attention as a measure for tackling the expansion of COVID-19, but they maintain services via telephone and e-mail to continue to guarantee people’s energy rights.
To assist these enquiries, the PAEs are implementing new e-mail addresses and phone numbers to attend to anyone who has doubts about their bills, consumptions or incidents related to the exercise of their energy rights. You can contact them by calling 93 000 80 54 from Monday to Friday from 9.00 to 14.00, or by sending an e-mail to one of the following addresses:
Ciutat Vella: paecv@bcn.cat
Eixample: paeeix@bcn.cat
Sants-Montjuïc: paestm@bcn.cat
Les Corts: paelc@bcn.cat
Sarrià-Sant Gervasi: paessg@bcn.cat
Gràcia: paegr@bcn.cat
Horta-Guinardó: paehg@bcn.cat
Nou Barris: paenb@bcn.cat
Sant Andreu: paesa@bcn.cat
Sant Martí: paesm@bcn.cat
What are PAEs and what services do they offer?
The Energy Advice Points were created in 2017 to defend citizens’ energy rights and reduce the number of residents at risk of energy poverty, offering the necessary information, attention and action for people to exercise their energy rights and to prevent the utility companies from denying them access to basic supplies. In fact, the law prohibits companies from cutting off supplies to vulnerable homes and obliges them to maintain the service as long as the situation of economic difficulty continues.
The PAEs offer the following services:
- Assessment of warnings of non-payment of bills and commencement of procedures to prevent energy interruptions to families in situations of vulnerability.
- Reconnection of supplies in the event of interruption or absence.
- Advice on consumption habits and energy efficiency and recommendations for adapting the energy consumption of the home to the levels of temperature and comfort recommended by the WHO.
- Optimisation of bills: Information on the steps for adapting electricity consumption to the contracted electrical power and to change to time related tariffs and elimination of costly or non-requested contractual services.
- Information on and application for the social allowance and exemption from the sewage rate.
- Information on energy auto-consumption and development of renewable energy projects.
By offering all of these services, the PAEs fight to guarantee the citizens’ energy rights, and in addition they include a team of professionals associated with programmes for reducing occupational exclusion.