More than 150 Thousand Smart Meters Installed with EU Support

Environmental responsibility  is becoming an inevitable topic in any conversation regarding environmental protection. Everyone can contribute through electricity savings, and the positive impact on the household budget should not be forgotten.

Electrodistribution of Serbia is committed to the modernisation of the metering infrastructure and, to this end, so far they have installed 150 thousand smart meters in Belgrade and Novi Sad, thus brining citizens new opportunities to save electricity.

The importance of this project for consumers is reflected in the ability to monitor electricity consumption and the efficiency of electrical devices, and therefore they can design their savings plan. This information, which will be located on the EDS servers, will only be available to authorized persons in the management centre and consumers, which will ensure their secrecy and confidentiality.

“This means that we will be able to see that, for example, at night, while we are sleeping and we think that we are not consuming energy, that is fact some old refrigerator is consuming 300 Watts per hour, or that some appliances such as water heaters are consuming more than we expected. From that, we can conclude that it is better for us to get more energy-efficient devices or to clean the limescale from the water heater”, said Saša Marčeta, a specialist for smart metering systems at Electrodistribution of Serbia and added:

“If we managed to switch from analogue to digital phones, and then to smartphones, we should also switch to smart meters so that we can take advantage of all the benefits that these meters provide, said Marčeta.

With the smart meters and remote reading, it is not possible to impact the accuracy of the measurement or the status of the energy meter either locally or remotely, and they also guarantee elimination of errors that occur when the meters are read “manually”. In addition to measuring consumption and a communication module, every smart meter has a calendar and a real-time clock in it, so that it automatically records data to a special, protected memory, at 00:00 on the first day of every month for the bill.

Smart meters do not save energy automatically, but they provide better control of its consumption and enable more accurate calculation of costs, which is a significant benefit for citizens. The installation of these modern meters is completely free for all consumers and will be continued in other cities of Serbia in the coming period.

Modernisation of the measuring infrastructure, apart from numerous benefits for citizens, also brings key changes that have a positive impact on the environment and the environmental responsibility of the entire society. Support for the introduction of smart metering technology came from an EU donation and funs from loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank.

According to announcements from Electrodistribution of Serbia, the improvement of the metering infrastructure will continue in the coming years, and EDS plans to replace 80 percent of the existing meters with digital meters with remote reading by the end of the decade. This creates an energy sustainable future for Serbia and builds the necessary environmental awareness of citizens.