Cape Verde

Getting Electricity in

Cape Verde

Listed below are the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain an electricity connection for a newly constructed building.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Name of Utility: Empresa de Electricidade E Agua (Electra)
  • City: Praia

About This Topic

To see indicator data for all economies, see the Getting Electricity page. To see how economies rank, see the Rankings page.

No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Submit application at Empresa de Electricidade E Agua (Electra) and await estimate

An application cannot be submitted online, but has to be submitted in person. Documents to be submitted are location plans, electrical plans of the internal wiring of the warehouse for approval by the utility, NIF (tax number) and the terms of responsibility of the electrician who did the internal wiring. This electrician has to be registered with Electra. In addition, an electrical description and drawings have to be submitted that have to contain information on the machines that will be used and how much power they will require. The request for electricity connection needs to be justified.

Agency: Empresa de Electricidade E Agua (Electra) 		14 calendar days no charge
* 2 Empresa de Electricidade E Agua (Electra) inspects site and internal wiring

After submitting the documents, there is an external inspection to prepare an estimate. Each neighborhood has an inspection once per week, so the waiting time for inspection can take several days. There is no cost for the inspection, however if the customer fails the first inspection because some required documents are missing, the customer has to pay for the second inspection. No one from the customer’s site has to be present, however access to the inspection site needs to be provided. At the time of the external inspection there is also an internal inspection done.

Agency: Empresa de Electricidade E Agua (Electra) 		4 calendar days CVE 1,800.0
3 Hire an electrical contractor to build the transformater post

The customer has to hire an electrical engineer/electrical contractor to buy the material and to build the transformer post. A transformer post has to be installed in the nearest tension.

Agency: Electrical Contractor 		37 calendar days USD 34,642.9
* 4 The client or the electrical contractor has to obtain an excavation permit at the municipality

The client or the electrical contractor has to obtain an excavation permit at the municipality since the service is underground.

Agency: Municipality 		30 calendar days CVE 35,000.0
5 Sign contract, Empresa de Electricidade E Agua (Electra) inspects the transformer post and carries out final connection

The customer is signing the connection contract with the utility. A representative from the utility is coming to do an inspection of the external works. The utility is installing the meter and doing the final connection. The meter will be installed at the same time as when the connection is done and by the same department of the utility. It would be installed on the transformer post. Electricity starts flowing as soon as the installation of the meter is finished.

Agency: Empresa de Electricidade E Agua (Electra) 		7 calendar days CVE 27,300.0
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
Explore Economy Data