New Grid Connection and Meter in Odemira and the Costa Vicentina

Who Does What: Us, the Network and the Supplier

This is where most of the confusion comes from, and it is worth fixing clearly. We build and certify the installation on your side of the property, up to the point of supply. The distribution network operator makes the physical connection and installs the meter. The supplier — whichever you choose — only sells you the energy and issues the bill.

Two practical consequences follow. Choosing a supplier does not speed up the connection, and changing supplier later does not require touching anything in the installation.

It also shows where the real delays sit: almost never in the interior installation, almost always in how the requests are coordinated and in incomplete documentation.

Isolated Houses: Distance to the Point of Supply

In a flat, connection is trivial. In an isolated house or a monte — which is much of this municipality — the first question is not electrical, it is geographic: where is the nearest grid and how far is it from the house.

That distance decides nearly everything: whether the connection is straightforward or needs intermediate poles, who bears the cost of that extension, and what size the cable from the point of supply to the consumer unit has to be so that voltage drop stays within acceptable limits.

This is why, for new build here, the site visit comes before any figure. Seeing the plot, measuring the real route and understanding what the grid has available at that point are three things that cannot be assessed remotely and that change the quote completely.

What Power to Contract, and Why Not the Largest

Contracted power is paid every day of the year, used or not. It is the fixed part of the bill. Over-contracting is one of the decisions that wastes the most money over time, and it is very easy to avoid.

For an ordinary house, 3.45 or 6.9 kVA is enough. It goes up when an induction hob, air conditioning, a borehole pump, a water heater and car charging coexist. In a holiday let the calculation changes again: consumption concentrates in peak hours, with every guest using everything at once.

And there is the alternative almost nobody proposes: rather than increasing power because of the car, a dynamic load balancer that reduces charging when the house is drawing. See our EV charger page — the saving over two years usually pays for the equipment.

Single-Phase or Three-Phase: a Decision Taken Once

The overwhelming majority of dwellings are single-phase, and that is perfectly adequate. Three-phase makes sense when there is equipment that requires it — certain heat pumps, workshop or commercial machinery, car charging above 7.4 kW — or when the power needed is high enough that single-phase becomes tight.

What matters is that changing later is not trivial: it means altering the supply, the consumer unit and frequently the meter position, and the cost bears no resemblance to having done it from the start. It is a decision taken once, at connection, which is why we always ask what you expect to have in the house in five years, not only today.

For commercial premises and catering the conversation is different: refrigeration and kitchen equipment usually demand three-phase from day one, and sizing for what opens now is the most frequent reason for a second job the following year.

It is new build on a bare plot. Where do I start?

With a site visit. We need to see where the nearest grid is, the distance to the house, and what is available at that point — three things that change the quote completely and cannot be assessed from a distance.

The house has been disconnected for years. Do I need everything again?

Not everything, but you do need certification: an installation disconnected for a long time requires verification before a new contract. In practice that is a visit, the testing, the technical file, and whatever corrections come up — which in most cases are few.

Can I ask for more power without building work?

Up to certain limits yes, as a purely contractual change. Above that the installation has to support the new power, and that brings in the consumer unit, the supply cable size and certification. We check what you have before you request it, so you do not pay for an increase the installation cannot carry.

Who pays for extending the grid to my house?

It depends on the distance and on the network operator's contribution rules, and it is one of the first things to clarify on an isolated plot. It is not our decision, but we tell you at the visit what usually happens so it is not a surprise.

Will the meter go inside or outside the property?

As a rule it has to be accessible from outside, for reading and intervention without depending on somebody being home. In isolated houses that usually means a cabinet at the property boundary, and the distance from there to the consumer unit is what sizes the supply cable.

Who makes the physical connection from the grid to my house?

The connection from the grid to the property is carried out by E-Redes, the distribution network operator. What we do is the interior installation and the compliance paperwork you need for that request to go ahead.