Marshall Islands

Getting Electricity in

Marshall Islands

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: Marshalls Energy Company
  • City: Majuro

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Submit an application to Marshalls Energy Company and await an estimate of connection fees.

The owner of the building and the land owner submit an application to the Marshalls Energy Company. There are no documents to be attached to the application. The customer does not have to include any particular document to identify the location of the warehouse. He just has to provide a general description.
The application for the connection includes the supply contract details so it is all in one form and the supply contract is not signed separately.
The utility is in charge of designing the external connection works.
Once the application is submitted the customer has to wait for an estimate of connection fees which takes approximately one week. There is no legal time limit associated with the wait period for the estimate. The connection contract is signed upon payment of the estimate.




Agency: Marshalls Energy Company 		7 calendar days USD 200.0
* 2 Await external site inspection from the Marshalls Energy Company for the preparation of the estimate.

Marshalls Energy Company inspects the site before it issues an estimate. Someone from the applicant’s party is required to be present during the inspection.
At this point the internal wiring is checked by the utility for the first time.


Agency: Marshalls Energy Company 		7 calendar days no charge
3 Await completion of the external connection works by Marshalls Energy Company

If material is available the works take 5 calendar days. If material is not available the works take 6-8 months. The materials are not available in more than 50% of the cases. Usually transformers are not available and if out of stock there is a 16 week lead time then another 6 to 8 weeks in shipping and receiving.
The utility is in charge of the works from its grid and for the installation of the transformer and a meter. An electrical contractor is in charge of the works from the meter to the warehouse. The utility would also take charge of ordering the transformer.
From pole to transformer with meter on the transformer is free for the customer. So transformer is not paid by the customer but by the utility. Sometimes customer can purchase the transformer if they can afford it. The trade off is if the customer can afford a transformer they can get it much faster but if they want to get it for free from the utility they have to wait for a long for it to be ordered. In this procedure the option when the customer pays for the materials and hence waits less time is recorded.
From the meter to the building is at customer’s expense.
The utility installs the meter during the connection works. Meter installation cost is included in the application fee.



Agency: Marshalls Energy Company 		52 calendar days USD 30,000.0
* 4 Await midway internal wiring inspection carried out by the Marshalls Energy Company

The utility will do some basic inspection and tests of the completed wiring and if it fails these tests, power connection will be refused until it passes those tests. The utility will do grounding checks and MEGA the system then do a general walk through. Anything considered unsafe must be repaired.
The inspections are usually done during planning, midway and at the end.



Agency: Marshalls Energy Company 		7 calendar days no charge
5 Await final internal wiring inspection carried out by the Marshalls Energy Company and electricity starts flowing

The connection is done right after the final internal wiring inspection if everything is completed and accepted.

Agency: Marshalls Energy Company 		7 calendar days no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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