20 Sep, 2014 @ 17:00
1 min read

Popular Nerja restaurant left powerless for a week after soaring energy bills

By Joe Chivers

A MUCH-LOVED Nerja restaurant, Fusion Food and Lounge, has been paying the price after its power was suddenly cut off last Friday evening.

The popular eatery was forced to close its doors just before the weekend rush due to the black-out, with total losses thought to exceed €5,000.

After electricity bills had begun spiralling out of control in the previous months, the plug was pulled before they could pay.

Speaking to the Olive Press, co-owner Kim Kurttila estimated a loss of around €500-1000 each day since the power cut.

“We’ve been struggling, and done our best, and it was really starting to take off,” added Kim. “We don’t know how this will affect us, we don’t want people to think we’re unreliable.”

Since Fusion opened in July 2013, the electricity bill had been around €350 a month.

But after April, the bills have been rapidly increasing, reaching a staggering €789 in August.

Their electricity company Factorenergia demanded €1561 – August and September’s invoices in advance – for the power to be restored. Kim and partner/co-owner Fredrik Kullberg settled the bill immediately but they have only just had their power switched back on this week.

The couple are also worried about the damage to Fusion’s reputation, currently rated 2nd out of 300 restaurants in Nerja on TripAdvisor.

According to an Endesa worker, it is actually against Spanish law to cut off power on a Friday, as the company cannot then be contacted until after the weekend.

A Factorenergia spokesperson told the Olive Press: “We have no comment, it was the only thing we could do in the situation.”

“If the owner of the restaurant want to make a formal claim about the energy bills or wants a study of their electricity consumption, he can ask for it.

“Factor Energia, S.A. obeys all the legal terms so we keep all the documents that prove our good faith and how we obey all the legal provisions.”

Tom Powell

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7 Comments

  1. Strange article this. What it seems to be saying is that the restaurants electric supply was cut off because they didn’t pay the bill. It does not say if the restaurant was behind in their payments or if it was their usage trend that was worrying the electricity company. A most vague article.

    The electricity companies in Spain are run like the mafia, so it’s really nothing to be surprised about. Fusion need to get a electricity monitor installed; they’ll probably find that someone has tapped into their supply and was stealing their power. Happens all the time.

    Fusion is number 10 on TripAdvisor as of this post, but that is meaningless anyway as most reviews are fake and you can buy a whole team of people just to post reviews for you, so don’t let that sway you. Best just to eat in lots of places and judge them yourself.

  2. Well I been paying my bills for 12 years and never missed a payment only to recieve 48 back dated elect bills for previous 5 years for the total of 23,000€. It appears there was a fraud on my meter and I was only paying one fase of three which I wasn’t aware of and Endesa had never picked up in 12 years of meter inspections/readings. Of course I protested my innocents but dealing with Endesa is like dealing with a brick wall and eventually got it split into 12 payments over 1 year!!!!!!

    I spoke to 2 lawyers who both charged me for telling me I could do nothing and it wasn’t until I spoke to a customer of mine who worked for Endesa I found I may have a case. She gave me details of a article of the law and I am ow pushing for amount to be reduced to maybe one year back payment.

    The worse thing was I thought my electric was already expensive but now it’s even more. Plus I have had to spend over 1300€ just to get the electric back to legal.

    You would think that a clever lawyer (oxymoron here) would specialize in Endesa case as so many people have problems with them

  3. Had a place for 10 years. That is just one of many reasons why I left Spain. The standing charges for electric and water are shocking.
    Expensive, poor quality, unreasonable, greedy, bad service, words that come to the fore to sum up Spain in general.

  4. Robert’s assessment of Spain is absolutely right and the electricity is not only very expensive but complete rubbish. We can only draw 25 amps in our place over there as opposed to 100 amps here in the UK and it’s cheaper.

    Yet another case of “not fit for purpose”.

  5. Blimey! If you hate Spain that much, there’s no-one stopping you leaving, you know!

    And I hope the local Ayuntamiento will be reviewing the Fusion accounts when they’re submitted – if you lose EUR 500 – 1000 a day without power, you must have been making that when the power was on :-)

  6. @Jim – sure, people can leave but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to hear the facts about electric prices and the general service of electric companies in Spain, does it? If people receive poor service and high prices from their suppliers, should they not complain about it? And how exactly does one “hate” a whole country just because of their electric supply? Get real.

    Fusion say they are losing EUR 500 – 1000 a day. That has nothing to do if the power is on, or off. If the place flooded, and was shut, that’s still the amount they’d lose, per day. What’s so difficult to understand about that Jim? lol

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