The Refugio has no electricity ... 😨

It's been going on for weeks. Sometimes there was electricity, sometimes nothing. For weeks we'd been asking the company for help. They came to take a look, but said they couldn't find anything. Then last week they discovered that the cables that run above our Refugio had been damaged, maybe due to a storm or from some other cause. The damage was heavy - some lines were torn and some melted together. 

We are struggling with the intermittent supply because our water pumps, clinic, thermal lamps for the cages and much more are permanently in use, so the electricity is constantly shorting out. Every once in a while, we are completely without any electricity.

The electricity company doesn't want to do anything to repair this because it's 'private land'.  We pay nearly every two months a decent amount.  We are always on time and pay correctly, but now we just have to get on with it on our own. It doesn't count with them at all that there 350 dogs and 100 cats needing care every day and that good hygiene is necessary, to say nothing of the need to keep them all warm and to carry on with operations on dogs and cats badly needing help. 'They' are indifferent -  they just got back in their van back and off they went ... and here we are.

Now Dirk is trying to rent a generator but prices are extremely high,... they ask up to 70 euros a day and then you still have to reckon on paying for your diesel,... we are at the end of our tether. It's costing us €140 a day with all the associated expenses.

The repair could cost between 7.000-10.000 euros and we can only get a  quote after 7 January because until January 6th, Spain is "on hold", no one works. We have approached a variety of different company asking for their estimates,  but in the meantime we are in real misery and our dogs always bear the brunt.

I can't believe that as a company they just don't want to help,... their post is only 200 m away from our refugio but we have to get everything done ourselves. It's too crazy for words,... but they are not bothered.

We'd be grateful to have any ideas. Any advice. Do you have contacts in the electricity industry? Are you an engineer in this field? Do you know anything about the way electricity supply companies operate in Spain? Any help of whatever nature will be so gratefully received. The appropriate emails and contact details are on the website. 

As soon as we have more information about what it will cost to sort this out, we will update the blogs and let you all know how you can help, if you'd like to. Thank you.