Who supplies & fits electricity meters?

One of our properties in a well established village is now ready for an electricity meter to be fitted so we can get hooked up to power for the winter. What is the complete procedure and ultimately - Who supplies & installs the meter?

It's not nearly as simple as you may hope...Dont know where you are but in our area, Granada, you will need, in order,

1 A Licence of First Occupation; this is issued by your local Town Hall and is dependent upon the issue of a Certificate of Final Works from a  qualified and certified Technical Architect  declaring that any work carried out at the premises is in compliance with the original planning permission.

2 A 'Bolletin' signed off by a certified and qualified Electrical Engineer declaring that the electrical wiring is to the latest standard.

3 A contract with an Electricity Supplier like Endesa or Iberdrola.

The meter is supplied and fitted by the electricity supplier; in the case of Endesa, the engineer will not instal the meter without a copy of the Bolletin and the licence of First Occupation. Once installed a monthly charge is applied to your account for the rental of the meter.

I suspect the same is true for all regions and suppliers.

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Edit by fb typo.

There might be an alternative route, depending on the circumstances and that is to get a temporary supply for an 'obra;' you might have to show that there are parts of the work not yet 100% completed.  Lots of people get these 'temporary' supplies in the countryside and you don't need as much paperwork.  You could then take your time getting the permanent supply, whilst still having a supply of electricity to the house.  Even the 'obra' supply can take months and months to get as you go to the office and they tell you about a new missing piece of paper.  You'll have to get right on it, if you want it any time soon.

HP... In respect of the builders supply as suggested by eggcup you need to be aware that a specific duration is applied by the supplier... in our case, with Endesa the period was three years, except our Brit 'builder'' (and I use the term in its loosest sense) neglected to tell us that. At the end of the period we had a letter from Endesa stating that the supply would be removed at seven days notice and would remain disconnected until such time as a new normal domestic contract was arranged.

During the period that we were on the builders supply, new and stricter regulations were introduced (2007) and when we tried to set up the new contract we found ourselves faced with a bill for close on 1000€ to bring the system up to date.

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Yes, Foxbat.  The whole thing is a minefield.  We had everything ready (according to the initial guidance we were given by the electricity company) for a new meter in October 2011, but then kept getting told about other requirements that hadn't previously been mentioned.  We didn't get the meter until September 2012.  I lost track of the number of times we went to the electricity company.  We would get told, 'yes, we'll fit in next week.' but then they wouldn't turn up.  This happened repeatedly.  It is sometimes an idea to pay for a 'fixer' to do this running around, depending on whether a good one is available, although then you lose control of the process and that person may just sit on it...  It's not an easy one.  If HP does go along the temporary route, just to try and get it sorted for this winter, there is a fee of 100 euros plus for the obra boletin and then another one later on for the permanent boletin.  We found there were various fees all along the process and again, I lost count of what all this cost.

Hi Foxbat & Eggcup, many thanks for such quick and very useful responses. From your experiences I'll learn a lot and be much better prepared, not sure if the bank account will be though.

Next  step is to get down to the supplier then.

Thanks again all at EOS.

HP