Vanuatu

Getting Electricity in

Vanuatu

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: Unelco
  • City: Port Vila

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Submit application for a connection to Unelco and await an estimate of connection fees

The application for connection can be submitted in person and by mail.
The following documents should be attached to the application
1) Land tile showing all cadastral limits (Electronic version georeferenced)
2) Calculation of Power requirement
3) Building plan showing service point
The utility is in charge of designing the details of the external connection works.



Agency: Unelco 		30 calendar days no charge
* 2 External inspection of the site by Unelco for preparation of technical study

Unelco visits the site for a technical study after the application for connection is submitted. Someone from the applicant’s party has to be present during the inspection.

Agency: Unelco 		1 calendar day no charge
3 Await completion of the external connection works by Unelco

Unelco or its subcontractor is in charge of the external connection works.

Before the external connection works can start the utility has to order the materials.
The meter gets installed at the end of the external connection works by the utility.
140 kVA requires an installation of a private substation. In the area assumed the connection will be an antenna feed from the existing arial network.


Agency: Unelco 		225 calendar days VUV 3,062,500.0
* 4 Sign a supply contract and pay a security deposit

The customer has to sign a supply contract right after the commissioning of the works and before electricity starts flowing. When customer signs a supply contract he has to pay a deposit. The security deposit is based on load the customer is subscribing to. There is no interest paid on the security deposit and it is returned at the end of the contract.



Agency: Unelco 		30 calendar days VUV 246,559.6
5 Obtain basic inspection of internal wiring from UNELCO and electricity starts flowing.

In practice Unelco checks internal wiring before they connect a customer although they are not required to. They do basic earth tests and circuit tests but don’t check the wiring in detail.
Once the basic internal wiring inspection is completed electricity starts flowing.


Agency: Unelco 		2 calendar days no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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