Electricity companies are obliged to return money to their customers for old security deposits

“We want to inform you about a regulatory development that affects your electricity contract.” This is how the email begins Endesa is sending to thousands of clients who paid a deposit at the time the contract was signed and to whom the money must now be returned. Although it is presented as something new, the reality is that it appears published in the RD 88/2026 of February 11, confirmed by the BOE (Official State Gazette).

This requires that the guarantees that had been deposited by clients before the entry into force of the standard be fully returned. Deposits are amounts that companies can request as guarantee in certain circumstances, such as when a supply is registered, the contracted power is increased or the service has to be reactivated. Therefore, it is money that is linked to the electricity contract and is not an amount that is linked to the consumption of electricity.

It must be clear that this document does not establish that all households will receive this money in the electricity bill since the only people affected are those people who have paid this guarantee and who are waiting for the refund.

The obligation to return the money appears in the BOE

The obligation placed on electrical companies to return this guarantee money appears in the BOE, specifically in the second transitional provision of RD 88/2026 called ‘Guarantee deposits’ where it is expressly established:

“Within a maximum period of four months from the entry into force of this royal decree, distributors will proceed to the full return of the guarantees that had been deposited by consumers before its entry into force.”

The rule also contemplates that distribution companies may distribute the amount over several billing cycles as long as they are within the established period and in this case, companies must identify on each invoice that the amount that has been paid corresponds to the return of the guarantee.

How is this money returned and what appears on the electricity bill

The return can be made through the marketing company with which the consumer has contracted the supply; this will occur when the distributor does not have sufficient data to make the refund. The BOE makes it clear that, in these cases, “the refund will be carried out through the current electricity marketer, who will have the obligation to transfer this refund to the final consumers of electric energy.”

The amount will have to be transferred to the consumer coinciding with the next billing cycle after the return made by the distributor. When the marketer receives the money from the distributor for this concept, it will have to reflect the return on the next invoice, identifying the concept to which it corresponds.

To check if the money has been received, the consumer can enter the breakdown of the electricity bill and look for the concept of ‘Guarantee return’.