Restaurant electrician in Seville, Spain: bars, restaurants and commercial kitchens

Restaurant electrician in Seville: an installation that survives the rush

A bar or restaurant asks more of its electrical installation than almost any other business. Griddles, fryers and ovens at full power, cold rooms that cannot stop, dishwashers, the coffee machine, extraction and air conditioning, all at once and surrounded by grease, steam and water. As a restaurant electrician in Seville, Spain, we design and build that installation so it works at the worst moment of service, not just on inspection day.

We work on new openings, business transfers (traspasos), kitchen extensions, equipment changes and premises that are already trading but keep giving trouble. If the business is open, we plan the work so you do not have to close.

What the electrical installation of a bar or restaurant includes

• Main fuse board with selectivity, divided by zones (dining room, kitchen, bar, refrigeration, air conditioning, terrace) so that a fault on the griddle does not switch off the cold rooms or the dining room.
• Dedicated power lines for griddles, fryers, ovens, dishwashers, the coffee machine and extractor hoods, single-phase or three-phase depending on the appliance.
• A separate circuit for refrigeration: cold rooms, bottle coolers and chest freezers, with their own RCD.
• Sealed sockets and switches in the kitchen, the washing-up area and the terrace, with the right protection rating against water.
• Lighting for the dining room, bar and terrace, with task lighting in the kitchen and control by zones.
• Emergency and signage lighting for exits and escape routes.
• Lines for air conditioning and extraction, coordinated with the HVAC installer.
• Earthing (grounding) measured and documented.
• Paperwork: technical design report or project, installation certificate (the boletín) registered with the Junta de Andalucía and preparation for the inspection.

The commercial kitchen: power, circuits and damp

The kitchen is the most delicate part. It combines the biggest loads in the premises with grease, steam and pressure washing. So we:

1. Calculate the real power from your equipment list and how much of it runs at once, and decide whether the premises need a three-phase supply or a higher potencia contratada (the contracted power, the maximum in kW your supply allows). If so, we handle it as we would any contracted power increase.
2. Put each large appliance on its own circuit, with the right cable size and protection. That way a fryer that overheats does not trip the griddle and the oven with it.
3. Split the kitchen across several RCDs, so earth leakage from damp takes out only one part.
4. Protect against water, following what ITC-BT-30 requires in damp premises: sealed boxes and sockets, suitable conduits and switches away from splash points.

Machines with large motors or heating elements are connected with industrial sockets or a fixed connection, as we explain in machinery connection.

When you need a hospitality electrician

• You are opening a bar or restaurant, or changing the use of premises that used to be another business.
• You are taking over a business and do not know whether the installation is legalised or will cope with your equipment.
• You are extending the kitchen or adding an oven, a griddle or a new cold room.
• The power trips at peak time or the RCD drops at night.
• You are setting up or enlarging a terrace, with lighting, heaters or outdoor sockets.
• You have received an unfavourable inspection or the 5-yearly periodic one is coming up.

If the premises do not have their papers in order, we start with the electrical legalisation for the opening licence.

Regulations that apply to bars and restaurants

• ITC-BT-28, premises open to the public (local de pública concurrencia): emergency lighting, low-smoke cables and distribution of circuits.
• ITC-BT-30, damp premises, which applies to kitchens and washing-up areas.
• ITC-BT-04, which decides whether the installation needs a project signed by a qualified engineer or a technical design report is enough.
• ITC-BT-05, initial inspection and periodic inspection every 5 years by an authorised control body (OCA).
• RITE, the Spanish regulation for heating and ventilation systems, which covers air conditioning and extraction and is coordinated with the HVAC installer.

Cold rooms: stock that does not depend on luck

An electrical fault in a cold room at night can cost more than the whole job. On the electrical side of refrigeration we follow ITC-BT-47 for compressor motors and Royal Decree 552/2019 on refrigeration installations, and we recommend three simple measures:

• Its own circuit and RCD for refrigeration, not sharing protection with the kitchen.
• An auto-reclosing device, which reconnects if the trip was caused by a passing disturbance. We explain it in auto-reclosing RCDs.
• A temperature alarm that alerts your mobile, so you find out before you open.

Hospitality in the city centre, Triana and the metropolitan area

In the city centre and the old town many bars occupy the ground floor of old buildings, with installations that have been through several businesses, supply cables too short of capacity for today’s power and documents that cannot be found. The first step here is a diagnosis and, almost always, upgrading and legalising. More about the area on our city centre page.

Triana is one of the neighbourhoods with the most bars and restaurants in the city, from the bars on Calle Betis to the taverns of San Jacinto and Pureza, with old tenement houses and old supply connections that make careful power planning essential. Read more on Triana.

In Nervión and Los Remedios most premises are on the ground floor of residential blocks, where coordinating the work with the comunidad (the homeowners’ association) matters. In the metropolitan area, from Dos Hermanas to Mairena del Aljarafe, we work on new restaurants and on food outlets in shopping centres and industrial estates.

How we work

1. Visit to the premises with the equipment list and, if you have them, the activity plans.
2. Load forecast and proposal for the fuse board, circuits and power.
3. Fixed quote item by item, with a calendar coordinated with the works or your opening hours.
4. Installation, in phases if the business is open.
5. Measurements of insulation, earthing and RCDs before handover.
6. Paperwork: installation certificate, report or project and inspection when it applies.

Guide prices

If your bill includes a reactive energy penalty caused by the refrigeration motors, it is corrected with power factor correction. Other rates are on our prices page, and all our services for businesses are under business and industry.