Serbia: Grid losses and electricity theft burdens EPS power utility saldo

Published on 15. July 2016., News Serbia Energy

According to Serbian state-owned power utility EPS, some 95.5 million kWh of electricity were lost in one year (between 15 June 2015 and 15 June 2016) due to electricity theft.

President of the Union of EPS Milan Djordjevic confirmed that that the company is owed about 1.5 billion euros in overdue electricity bills. The losses of EPS Distribucija in 2015 were 14.01 %, which is lower than planned 14.71 %. The representatives of EPS claim that several measures taken by the company have drastically reduced the amount of stolen electricity.

However, the World Bank Country Manager in Serbia Tony Verheijen expressed his skepticism regarding these claims and said that electricity theft in Serbia reached about 0.2 % of GDP (gross domestic product) or about 70 million euros annually.

The representatives of EPS further claim that the measures taken by the company with the support of the Serbian Government have already produced results and EPS achieved significantly better results in bill collection in 2015 than initially planned. The collection rate is 94.4 % and more than 50 % of the households receive 5 % discount for paying their electricity bills on time, transmits Serbia-energy.eu