Iceland

Getting Electricity in

Iceland

Below is a detailed summary of the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain an electricity connection for a newly constructed building in Iceland.

This information 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 185 economies. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2012.

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  • Standardized Company

  • Name of Utility: Orkuveita Reykjavíkur
  • City: Reykjavik

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Submit application at Orkuveita Reykjavik and await inspection and receive estimate

An application can be submitted online. The following documents are needed with the application: Siteplan of the warehouse in scale 1:500 - to see how it is located to the existing electricity system, location of electrical fuse/switch board - to see where the cable is coming into the warehouse and single line diagram of the electrical fuse/switch board. There is no notarization needed of the documents. There is no internal inspection. However, the electrician who is in charge for the internal wiring must be qualified (having the right examination) and be approved by the Icelandic Construction Authority (a governmental agency responsible for the safety of electrical housing installation) and registered on a list. The Icelandic Construction Authority is now responsible for administration of law and regulations regarding Electrical Safety and took over these responsibilities from the Consumer Agency. The utility has this list and the list is renewed monthly. If the electrician applying for the 200A connection is not on the list, the utility refuses the application for connection. When a new customer applies for a new connection to OR's distribution system, he/she can apply for a supply contract with the sales department (OR) or the customer can inform the sales department that he/she wants to make a supply contract with another electricity company/supplier.
Agency: Orkuveita Reykjavíkur 		7 calendar days no charge
* 2 Orkuveita Reykjavik inspects site of the warehouse

An external inspection is conducted to confirm that the given information in the submitted documents and drawings is accurate. The external inspection is not necessary to prepare an estimate. There is no extra fee for the inspection, the cost is included in the application fee. It is the main rule that someone from the customer's party is present during the inspection, in case that OR is having remarks on the site and the customer needs to fix them before the external connection works start.
Agency: Orkuveita Reykjavíkur 		5 calendar days no charge
3 The customer pays the connection fee and awaits the completion of the external connection works

When the customer has given all necessary documents/drawings to the utility and the site inspection confirms that it fulfills the requirement of the utility, then the utility sends the invoice to the customer. The customer can pay the connection fee only via a bank. The customer gets an invoice/giro from the bank. This is always before the external work is done. If the site inspection is according to given documents, then there should be no waiting time until external works can start. The external connection works involve the following:
the utility makes a ditch/trench from the nearest cable distribution cabinet to the warehouse's fuse board, a cable is laid in the trench and cable terminations are made to the cable end which is connected to the distribution cabinet (without fuse). The utility obtains the excavation permit during this step.
All material for the external connection is provided by the utility.

Agency: Orkuveita Reykjavíkur 		14 calendar days ISK 649,600.0
4 Frumherji installs the meter, electrician notifies Construction Authority

The meter is installed when the customer requires it. It is installed by another company which is responsible for this service since this service was outsourced a few years ago. OR has outsourced the meter-department to Frumherji. Frumherji owns the meters and rents them to OR. There is no charge for the installation of the meter, this is included in the connection fee. The customer has no direct interaction with Frumherji. When all connections are finished (electrical fuse board + distribution cabinet) and the meter is installed, then the current can start flowing. When the utility has done the connection of the warehouse to the distribution system, the electrician of the contractor who built the warehouse must fill out a form and send it to the Iceland Construction Authority which is now responsible for the safety of electrical housing installation. The utility also informs this agency that this house is now connected to the distribution system. The electricity can start flowing before the electrician sends the form to the Iceland Construction Authority.
Agency: Frumherji 		1 calendar day no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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