Timor-Leste

Getting Electricity in

Timor-Leste

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: Electricidade de Timor-Leste
  • City: Dili

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Submit an application for electricity connection to EDTL and await estimate of the connection fees.

The application can be submitted by mail or in person. With the application a customer has to submit: location of site, proposed building location, proposed service location, estimated load requirement and a registration of the business ant the National Direction of Commerce (EDTL has different tariffs according to different type of business activities, this will also help EDTL to assign the correct tariff). Since the power required is more than 4500 VA, EDTL requires an installation wiring project. This project concerns the internal wiring.
The documents do not require notarization. The supply contract is signed the same day the application is submitted. All departments of Electricidade de Timor-Leste are located in one building and the customer service in one part of the building takes care of applications and supply contracts.
The day the customer signs the contract he has to make a declaration, accepting all terms and conditions given by EDTL for use of electricity. This will be among others, to never make an illegal connection, to never damage meters, to allow EDTL staff to inspect the installation whenever needed, and use electricity according the load required submitted to EDTL.

In 14 days the utility works on the plan of the connection and provides an estimate to the applicant. According to a private contributor this procedure can take “a little bit longer” depending on the number of requests. Hence code 21 days.

The applicant fee is 100 USD.

The application fee will be 100 USD provided that the distance from the pole to the connection point is less or equal to 30m (thirty meters) from 30m ahead, an additional fee will be paid depending of the distance to the connection point.


Agency: EDTL 		28 calendar days no charge
2 External Inspection by the utility

Someone from the applicant’s party is required to be present during the inspection.

Agency: EDTL 		14 calendar days no charge
3 External connection works carried out by the utility and final connection.

The utility is in charge of designing the connection and carrying out the physical connection works. It might higher a subcontractor to complete the works.
A customer has to await external connection works depending on availability of material. All the material is provided either by the utility and the applicant is charged at the end for the expenses or the customer can buy the materials on his own.
If the material is not available external connection works take 3 months. According to the utility all material is available more than 50% of the time although there is a problem with the lack of materials.
The meter is installed by the utility at the same time as when the connection is done.
The electricity starts flowing at the moment the connection is done.

An additional load of 140 kVA will require construction of a new substation. The cost of the transformer is paid after the estimate is provided and before any external connection works can start. The applicant is not charged for cost of the labor or any other materials. He pays just the cost of the transformer.
The meter is installed by the utility and electricity starts flowing as soon as the external connection works are over and the fees have been paid.


Agency: EDTL 		21 calendar days USD 40,000.0
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