REBT

Spain’s Reglamento Electrotécnico de Baja Tensión. What the REBT covers, how the 52 ITC-BT complementary instructions fit around it, what the Boletín de Instalación Eléctrica is, and what WireSketch does — and doesn’t — model for Spanish installations.

What the REBT is

The REBT (Reglamento Electrotécnico de Baja Tensión) is the Spanish national regulation for low-voltage electrical installations. It is anchored in Real Decreto 842/2002 of 2 August 2002, published in the BOE on 18 September 2002 and in force from 18 September 2003. The text has been consolidated repeatedly — the most recent consolidation is dated 3 September 2025.

The REBT is a regulation, not a standard. It is structured as the body text plus 52 complementary technical instructions, ITC-BT-01 through ITC-BT-52, each covering a specific topic — protection, earthing, special installations, particular use cases. ITC-BT-52 was added by RD 1053/2014 to cover infrastructure for charging electric vehicles, and was subject to technical amendments by RD 450/2022. The Ministerio de Industria publishes non-binding Guías Técnicas de Aplicación under Article 29 of the REBT; the application guide for ITC-BT-52 was updated to Revision 2 in September 2024 by the Ministerio de Industria y Turismo, but the underlying instruction itself remains the RD-1053/2014 text as amended by RD 450/2022.

Who the REBT applies to

All low-voltage installations in Spain, residential and otherwise. The body text plus the relevant ITC-BT instructions are what a Spanish installer designs to and what the autonomous-community industry authority will check against.

The enforcement model: declaración responsable + Boletín

Installer authorisation in Spain works by declaración responsable de inicio de actividad under Article 22 of the REBT, as modified by RD 560/2010 transposing the EU Services Directive. The declaration is filed with the competent autonomous-community authority, is valid indefinitely, and once filed authorises the installer company to operate across the whole Spanish territory without additional regional registrations.

The downstream compliance artefact for the homeowner or end user is the Boletín de Instalación Eléctrica, issued by the authorised installer when the work is complete. The Boletín is what a Spanish distributor will ask for before energising a new connection or modifying an existing one. WireSketch’s planner output is a design and discussion artefact, not the Boletín.

Key requirements

REBT requirements are spread across the body text and the relevant ITC-BT instructions. For a typical residential installation, the high-traffic instructions include:

• ITC-BT-10 — foreseeable load demand.
• ITC-BT-17 — common installations in buildings.
• ITC-BT-24 — protection against electric shock.
• ITC-BT-25 — particular installations in dwellings (the residential rules: minimum equipment, circuit categories C1 through C12 by electrification level).
• ITC-BT-27 — installations in bathrooms (the Spanish transposition of the IEC 60364-7-701 volume model).
• ITC-BT-52 — infrastructure for charging electric vehicles, added by RD 1053/2014 and technically amended by RD 450/2022; the September 2024 Rev-2 application guide is the current interpretive document.

WireSketch’s research did not surface a verified primary-source enumeration of every per-circuit ampacity, per-room minimum-equipment count, or RCD-type rule. A Spanish installer working to the REBT will know which ITC-BT instructions apply and what the electrification level (electrificación básica vs elevada) implies; this page does not invent numbers it could not verify.

What WireSketch models from the REBT

Honest answer: WireSketch does not yet model the REBT as a separate region. The closest selector is DIN 18015 / VDE 0100 (Germany) as a generic HD 60364 baseline. With DIN selected in Spain you get:

• IEC 60364 wet-room Zone 0/1/2 in bathroom mode — the underlying model ITC-BT-27 transposes.
• Type A RCD as the default main protection — a reasonable residential baseline; the REBT has its own scope rules.
• Kitchen-rule dedicated circuits for heavy appliances — sensible everywhere; the REBT’s C1…C12 circuit-category scheme is not enforced.
• Generic installation-zone overlays drawn from DIN 18015 — useful as a planning aid; they are not Spanish conventions and do not encode the REBT electrification levels.

What WireSketch doesn’t model

• REBT electrification levels — electrificación básica vs elevada, and the consequent C1…C12 minimum-circuit set per ITC-BT-25, is not encoded.
• ITC-BT-52 IRVE specifics — while WireSketch can plan EV-charging fixtures, the Spanish ITC-BT-52 requirements as amended by RD 450/2022 are not enforced, and the September 2024 Rev-2 application guide is not consulted by the planner.
• Boletín de Instalación Eléctrica format — the legal artefact is not produced by the app.
• Autonomous-community variations — while the REBT is national, autonomous communities administer some procedural overlays; the planner does not model them.
• Network operator energisation workflow — the planner does not interface with the Spanish distributor connection-acceptance process.

Practical tip

If you are a homeowner in Spain planning a remodel or new build: use WireSketch with the DIN 18015 selector to capture the layout you want, generate the Renovation Brief PDF, and give it to your authorised installer. Be explicit that you understand the binding regulation is the REBT (RD 842/2002 consolidated), and that the installer will issue the Boletín before the distributor will energise or modify the connection.

If you are an authorised Spanish installer, treat WireSketch as a layout and client-communication tool. Map the layout onto the relevant ITC-BT instructions (notably ITC-BT-25 for residential minimums and ITC-BT-27 for bathrooms), choose the right electrification level, and issue the Boletín in the form the autonomous-community authority expects.