Bit of luck today

I’ve been waiting for the next step to happen in my electricity connection saga – hopefully actually connecting up my supply – but as nothing has occurred since the last two gentlemen from Bouygues Energies came and did whatever it was that they had to do a few days ago, I thought that it would be a good idea to find out what’s now going on. And lucky I did!

I have a contact in Enedis, a lady who was very helpful in resolving the logjam that existed between Enedis and SDE24 and getting things moving again. I thought that I should make contact with her again and did so yesterday by email. She came back today with a very helpful reply that indicated that despite my having made an application for a temporary electrical supply to be used before and during the construction of my new house, Enedis was working on the basis that I needed a permanent supply.

I therefore clarified the point and she came back very promptly with another helpful reply saying that in that case, the approach needed to be somewhat different. First I needed to select an energy supplier (ie EDF or one of several other suppliers none of whom are any cheaper – so much for market competition) and then I needed to contact that supplier and make an application for a ‘Branchement Provisoire’.

Getting this information is like drawing teeth, as my father used to say – slow and very painful. She told me that I had to get a confirmatory reference from my chosen supplier starting ‘A06..’ and once Enedis had received this they could, usually within 48 hours, provide a connection date.

This information was excellent news, but given my experience of the system to date, I gloomily assumed that these additional demands would take days. But not so. I chose EDF as my supplier because (a) they didn’t come out dearer than any of their competitors and (b) they already knew of me as a former client, which I though might be helpful. I then trawled their web site to find out how to make my application for a ‘Branchement Provisoire’ and was dismayed to find that you’re expected to do so by calling a certain customer service number.

I say ‘dismayed’ because usually this means that when you make the call, either (a) you enter into a labyrinth of ‘press 1,2 etc’ choices that are so inpenetrable for a non-French speaker that you eventually end up getting cut off without ever getting through to the department you need to or (b) you end up talking to someone with a strong regional accent who speaks at the speed of a machine gun.

Neither of those things happened today because having got over the first hurdle (the ‘1,2 etc’ choices) I was connected with a charming young lady who not only spoke really clearly but also understood my problem and set about resolving it. In a matter of a few minutes she had enough of my details (name, address, phone number, email address, power requirements) to say that she’d send me a form by post to sign and return and could provide me with the ‘A06..’ reference that I needed.

I then zipped off another email to my Enedis contact with the reference and she replied by return with an email saying, ‘Parfait!’ So that I think is the last step that I need to take in pursuit of my electricity connection. The ball is now back in Enedis’s court and hopefully, as the lady said, I should receive a firm connection date in the next 24-48 hours. In the meantime, all I’ll need to do is sign and return the new EDF contract. I hope that that’s it, anyway…