Serbia Power Utility Company loses about two percent of delivered electricity because of the non-modulated meters, said Deputy Director General of EPS Zivotije Jovanovic. According to him, Serbia did not modulate between 50 and 60 percent of the meters. “Since the meters are not modulated, EPS annually losses between 25 and 30 MEUR because the non-modulated meters measures less electricity to our detriment”, he said at a roundtable discussion on what kind of smart meters should be introduced to Serbian DSO level.
Jovanovic said that about 1.8 million of those meters, which are not modulated, need to be replaced or modulated.
As for tender for purchase of so–called smart meters, which was announced last year, he said that this tender lasts for nine months and there is no end in sight, although, as he said, “the situation is burning.”
According to Jovanovic, the question is whether it is economically justified to replace all three million mechanical meters in Serbia, especially meters in distant rural areas.
The Director of the Serbia Energy Agency, Aca Vuckovic, said that the EU enacted that “smart meters” should be installed by 2020, but, as he pointed out, to do so if the analysis shows that it is profitable.
He stated that this meant that the meter should be replaced only to the consumers for whom it was profitable to do so, and that each country decided what percent of mechanical meters would replace with smart, which allowed consummation control and remote reading.
Vuckovic said that “on the EU level until now was replaced only 10 percent of the meters”, and added that so far, most did Italy, which replaced almost all the meters.
Assistant Minister of Energy, Dejan Trifunivic said that nothing was done until now on the new meters purchase, though the tender for 30,000 of these counters was opened at the of the last year.
He pointed out that the supply of smart meters was important, because from 1 January in 2014 about 4,800 enterprises will procure electricity on the market, and that at the beginning of 2015 also the citizens will come on the market.
Source; Serbia Energy
