Cancelling power, gas or water contracts in Portugal: EDP, Endesa, Goldenergy, EPAL

← Cancelling contracts in Portugal

Switching supplier: do not cancel the old contract

To change electricity or gas supplier, you only sign a contract with the new one. The new contract ends the previous one (art. 81(1)(c) of ERSE’s regulation, the RRC), the new supplier represents you in the switch, and ERSE says you do not need to end the old contract yourself. The switch is free, has no limit on how often, cannot cut your supply and must be done within three weeks of the request (art. 242(3)). The old supplier then sends one final bill within six weeks (art. 242(11)); you can send your own meter reading.

Cancelling first is the expensive mistake: a cancellation without a new contract means the supply is cut, and EDP warns its cancellation means a permanent disconnection.

Moving out: cancel or hand over to the next occupant

When you leave a home, you remain liable for the supply until there is a new contract for that address or until your written notice to the supplier takes effect (art. 70(1) RRC). Two clean ways out:

1. 1
   The next occupant signs in their name
   With your supplier or another one. They cannot be refused because of your debts or a previous occupant’s (art. 21(6)). After your move-out is notified, they have 15 days to sign or supply can be cut after notice (art. 70(2)).
2. 2
   You cancel in writing
   A cancellation by the customer is allowed at any time and at no cost, unless a lock-in is running (art. 81(1)(b)). The RRC sets no notice period: check your contract (Goldenergy, for example, asks for 30 days). Give the date and a meter reading: customers may read and send it themselves (art. 36(3)).

Our letter generator (option “Power, gas, water”) writes the cancellation in Portuguese with the CPE or CUI code of the supply point, the reading and the address for the final bill.

Lock-ins on power and gas

An energy contract can only have a fidelização in exchange for a benefit; with consumers it lasts at most 12 months, does not renew automatically and rules out indexed or dynamic prices (art. 19(1), (4) to (6) RRC). If you leave early, the compensation must be proportionate and cannot exceed the supplier’s direct economic losses (art. 19(10)). The invoice shows the date the lock-in ends. This is not the telecom rule: the 50%/30% formula of the fidelização calculator applies to internet, TV and mobile only.

If the supplier changes your contract terms, it must send them at least 30 days ahead and you can cancel at no cost if you do not accept them (art. 68(3)).

EDP, Endesa, Goldenergy, Galp and Iberdrola

Water: cancel in writing, then give access to the meter

Water is run by each municipality’s operator, but the rules are national. You can cancel at any time when you vacate the home, in writing, giving a new address for the last bill (art. 64(1) of Decreto-Lei 194/2009; art. 79(1) of ERSAR regulation 594/2018). Within the next 15 days you must allow the meter to be read; the cancellation takes effect from that reading, and if it cannot be read because of you, you keep paying (art. 64(2)–(3)). Leaving only for a while? You can ask, in writing and 10 working days ahead, to suspend the service and the monthly charges (art. 75 ERSAR).

In Lisbon, EPAL asks for at least 3 days’ notice through its website, stores, letter or fax, with your customer code and the address for the last bill, and you must be present on the day the water is shut off, or the cancellation does not count.

Deposit and final bill

Households can only be asked for a deposit (caução) when supply is restored after a cut for non-payment, and not if they then pay by bank transfer or direct debit (art. 23(2) RRC; DL 195/99; art. 76 ERSAR). At the end of the contract the deposit is returned, minus any debt and updated for inflation; for power and gas the supplier returns it without being asked (art. 27 RRC; art. 4 DL 195/99). The right to charge any of these services expires 6 months after the service (art. 10 of Lei 23/96).

Complaints: ERSE, ERSAR and arbitration

Complain to the supplier first, then in the Livro de Reclamações: the company must answer within 15 working days and ERSE receives a copy. ERSE informs and can sanction but cannot impose a solution in your case. For a decision, go to a consumer arbitration centre: for essential services such as power, gas and water, arbitration is mandatory for the supplier when you choose it (art. 15 of Lei 23/96). ERSE’s centre finder works by municipality; where there is no local centre, the CNIACC handles it. For water, the operator must reply in writing within 22 working days to written complaints (art. 68 DL 194/2009).