Even though it turned out that the statement of the Center for consumer protection “Forum” from Nis that, after the recent price rise, citizens from south Serbia will pay more expensive electricity than those from Belgrade, in fact is disinformation, it is certain that from 1. January 2014. the entrepreneurs from this part of the country will pay more expensive electricity than those from the capital.
In fact, from that date, 4,000 companies will be “removed” from the so-called regulated electricity prices, which are significantly lower than the real, and will be forced to buy electricity on the open market. From 1. January of the next year only households will have right at regulated prices, while the whole economy in Serbia will pay considerably more digits. All this takes part in the process of the electricity market opening which is carried out through stages in our country. Considering that in the meantime company EPS Distribution was established, to whom citizens from 1. August pay their bills, and yet there are five regional distribution centers that from now only have a service role, in the electricity price for the economy from the 1. January will be included so-called network fees (maintenance of the distribution network).
The problem is that network fees are not the same for all five electricity distribution companies, which means that if this methodology would be literally applied, a businessman from south of Serbia would be paid for electricity higher amount than the other from Belgrade.
– The network maintaining costs are not the same for example for the electricity distribution, which is system operator in the area which is dominated by plain and those which works in the territory dominated by hill and mountain areas. The costs of these secondary mentioned are larger and Energy Agency of Serbia in that case approved different prices of network fee regarding the real costs. In this way we come to the conclusion that the south of Serbia, of course, when it comes to the economy, not households, would pay higher electricity bills .
It certainly would not fit into the picture of sustained economic development of all parts of Serbia, nor could it be considered as fair, because it would further burden the economy work in the poorer parts of the country.
– The only way to prevent such a thing is to unify network fees, and it is impossible to do without completely system reorganization and instead of five system operators to introduce only one EPS Supply. Concerning that it is a clumsy system that for long time operated in one way, that the EPS transformation and reorganization is not a process that can be done in a short period of time, it is practically impossible to establish one system operator for the next five months, which means that electricity prices for economy definitely would be different in different parts of Serbia because of the different fees – says our source. According to rough calculations, the electricity price for the economy in southern Serbia would be from 1.January about 50 percent higher than in Belgrade.
Let remind, these days the Center for consumer protection “Forum” from Nis announced that from 1. August, people from the south of Serbia will pay more expensive electricity than those from the capital. On that occasion, Serbia Power Utility Company made a statement and denied those allegations:
– Electricity price list is unique in the whole Serbia and kilowatt-hour prices by tariffs and zones are the same for all the customers that are supplied by company EPS supply from 1. July according to the Energy Law, and that are all the customers that until 1. July were supplied by companies for electricity distribution. It is not true, according to the Consumer Forum from Nis, that citizens from the south of Serbia pay the most expensive electricity, and the citizens of Belgrade the cheapest. Price lists mentioned by the Consumer Forum from Nis refer to the distribution network access to customers that from 1. January will lose the right of public supply and begin to buy electricity on the open market. It is a certain number of customers from the category of companies and entrepreneurs. The amounts specified in the price lists of five economy companies for distribution and also published in the “Sluzbeni glasnik”, refer to the network fee price for customers at all voltage levels – announced from EPS.
Source; Serbia Energy
