In the March signing of the agreement with the bidders for the repayment of the debt in installments “Elektrosrbija” was the most successful, regarding the collection in the trimester right behind “Elektrovojvodina”, and with the losses of electricity, they fight with super controls.
Among the companies of EPS for distribution, the specificity of “Elektrosrbija” in Kraljevo isn’t determined only by a large geographical prevalence and a very highly expressed variety of consumption, but it is also determined by the fact that even in those conditions, it keeps up with the territorially more consolidated and technologically more advanced distributions, for example, with “Elektrovojvodina” and “Elektrodistribucija Belgrade.” We asked Srđan Đurović, the Director of “Elektrosrbija” how they manage to do that and who determines the plans of the company.
– The specificity you mentioned – Đurović said-has a great impact on the plans and ranges of “Elektrosrbija” . Nevertheless, the fact that we “keep up “with the most successful companies in EPS is, firstly, a result of a good tradition and constant effort to make progress.. If it looks like a competition, than I must say that our efforts come from a creative and competitive spirit, which encourage us to overcome the difficulties by persistent and effective work, even under the circumstances when there is a lack of funds, and when there is a lack of employees as well. Therefore, the plans of “Elektrosrbija” of Kraljevo reflect of the real need for improvement of all the performances of the ED systems. In short, our main goal is to provide a balanced and suitable development of the distribution system in the entire consumption area of “Elektrosrbija.”
Does it also imply the adequate investments in the highland areas?
We take care of the electricity supply of the consumers in very jagged and mostly highland areas of West and Central Serbia. Therefore, the areas that are considered to be plains and urbanized part of our consumption area do not primarily determine the plans for quality and safe delivery of the electricity, but precisely the areas that are difficult to reach, especially in winter. Hence, in annual plans, the priority is given to managing the facilities of 110 kV and 35 kV, especially regarding their continuous maintenance during the entire year. In the first quarter of this year, for example, the most critical points of the operational competence were in the highland areas. Despite good preparations for the winter season, there were cable breakouts and broken columns because of the snow and ice, especially on the low voltage and medium voltage network. All these power outages have been repaired as soon as possible. Since I point out this fact, then I must mention that the electricity turnover in rural regions doesn’t cover the costs of the maintenance of the power facilities in those regions. This represents an additional confirmation that the business politics of “Elektrosrbija” really takes care of an even development of ED systems in general
Considering that our highland areas are mostly deserted, how do you keep the experts in those areas?
That is the question that doesn’t depend only on “Elektrosrbija”. On 25,000 square meters of a very jagged territory of our consumption area, it simply isn’t possible to spread the experts evenly when you don’t have enough of them in general, and we don’t. We lack the experienced electrical fitters and electrical engineers and we should employ at least as many as it is envisaged by the Annual business plan. Hiring those experts in rural areas is possible only for seasonal works. That also implies that we own an adequate number of vehicles, for which the sufficient funds couldn’t be approved.
“Elektrosrbija” stands out in consumption payment, and it was the best in the debt rescheduling in March. It concluded more than a half of all signed agreements with buyers. What was your impetus for such success?
In the first quarter of this year “Elektrosrbija” recorded a cumulative charge of 93.23 per cent accrual, which is a second result among the companies for distribution of EPS right behind “Elektrovojvodina”. It is a very important success for us, and it is even bigger considering the payment capacity of the buyers in some consumption areas in Serbia. I believe that we did a good job since we concluded more than 38,000 agreements on regulation of old debts in March and 34,000 of them were concluded with households. We are going to continue with this kind of trend also in April as part of the action” No interest, on rates”, except that now we have better chances to exceed the March success. The difference is that in the first part of this action, it wasn’t possible for the sued buyers to reschedule the debt from 2012 but it is possible in April In March, the best results were in Kruševac, Aranđelovac and Valjevo, but the great total result was achieved thanks to the employees in the Commercial Department. There is no doubt that the signing of such a great number of agreements helped to increase the payment of the quarter , because the condition for the agreement was the payment of the rates in 2013.
Speaking of payments, how much do the buyers owe to “Elektrosrbija” for delivered electricity?
Our total claims in the beginning of April were 12.7 billion RSD. The economy owes more than six billions and the companies in reconstruction owe the most part of that debt. Most of these companies are still the big consumers of electricity, so that their debt increases every month. Also, with most of them we didn’t conclude agreements on the old debt regulation in March, because they weren’t capable of paying the outstanding bills of 2013. A fact that only two such companies owe more than 700 million dinars shows how much this situation is serious. We suspended the delivery of electricity to most of those buyers and the court proceeding for debt collection is in progress.
Do you, like the others, have a software problem to separate the debt for electricity from total amount of interest and how are you going to do that?
“Elektrosrbija” in its operation applies valid legal regulations, so we have always accrued the interest according to the valid laws. We don’t have any software problem and in every moment we have the information of a principal debt and interest amount, whether it is about a group of households or transfer account users. We own a software solution which allows us to separate those data in every moment, which is the basis for functioning and the use of linear interest account
With last year’s 16.26 percent of electricity loss, “Elektrosrbija” still keeps its place in the golden middle among the companies of ED However, you have areas with extremely big losses? How will you deal with them?
When we talk about losses, the Branch “Novi Pazar” of the company “Elektrosrbija”, with 38 percent of loss, has a significant impact on the result of the entire Company, although there are branches with the losses below the average in EPS. That is the reason why we started the actions of strict control in the Branch of Novi Pazar from January this year, where we hire the best and highly experienced controllers from the other branches. These actions are extremely efficient, so, 33 unauthorized consumptions were discovered in Tutin only in one day. Since the fine for electricity stealing is very small, and judicial practice uneven, the only effective way to reduce losses in this area, is to relocate measuring points. However, a lot of funds are necessary for this cause, which our company doesn’t have at the moment. This year we have planned a procurement of 1,800 counters, but that is only a small part of the things we should do in the Branch “Novi Pazar”, where is necessary to relocate 40,000 measuring points.
In brief, how would you estimate the current material and financial state in “Elektrosrbija” at the end of the first quarter?
The first quarter of this year our company finished without outstanding obligations to suppliers, employees and the state, and with 1.2 billion RSD on current accounts. The procurement procedures of the necessary electrical equipment for the realization of the maintenance and investment plan, but also for realization of connection services and joined investment in the total amount of 2 billion dinars, are in progress. If we take into account regular monthly obligations, that aren’t low, it is clear that, in the following period, it is necessary to intensify our effort to collect debts in order to fulfill our plans without threatening the liquidity of the company.
This year’s operations
This year we have plans to complete the works on the construction of the substation 110/20/35 “ Jagodina 3” , to build the construction part of the substation 110/20 kV “Ljig”, to continue the construction of the substation110/10 Kv “Kraljevo 6-Ribnica”. We also have plans to finish the electrical installation works on the reconstruction and expansion of the substation 110/35/10 “Aleksandrovac”. On the voltage level 35/10kV significant construction, electrical and installation works have been planned on the following facilities: Divci, Lajkovac2, Rogačica, Zlatibor 3 and Veliki Šiljegovac. The preparation of the investment and technical documentation for the needs of construction and reconstruction of the several substations 110/х kV and 35/10 kV , is also a very important part of this year’s plan, because the effective plan implementation is not possible without quality documentation-said Đurović.
Source; Kwh
