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Croatia has so far installed one million smart meters, while Serbia has reached 650,000. They make up 40% of all power metering devices in Croatia, compared to a 17% level in Serbia.
Digital or smart meters offer numerous advantages for consumers and distribution system operators (DSOs). The devices are a cornerstone of future distribution networks – smart grids that will allow consumers, including many prosumers, to both draw electricity from the network and inject it. Smart grids also enable consumers to provide various flexibility and demand response services.
The smart meters rollout in Croatia is being implemented across the country, with about 40,000 new devices installed per month. Croatia’s DSO HEP-Operator Distribucijskog Sustava (HEP ODS), a subsidiary of state-owned power utility Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP), has previously announced that it intends to replace all 2.5 million devices by the end of 2029.
Nearly all users in the business category have received new devices
Installation of new meters is completely free of charge for customers. It takes about twenty minutes. HEP underlined that smart meters offer a range of benefits – enabling simpler and remote reading of consumption, more precise consumption management, better planning, and savings.
Danijela Žaja, chief of the metering and market support sector of HEP ODS, told RTL that more than one million smart meters have been installed so far for households and firms. In the business category, almost all meters have already been replaced, she said, Poslovni Dnevnik reported.
In her words, new devices help consumption management.
Serbia is financing new meters with loans
According to Ana Pavlović, head of the electricity markets support sector of neighboring Serbia’s DSO Elektrodistribucija Srbije (EDS), so far the company has installed almost 650,000 smart meters.
EDS plans to set up another 200,000 units in the next round, financed by a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), she said at a conference organized by Energija Balkana.
Out of the 200,000 meters, the cities of Čačak and Kraljevo are earmarked for 30,000 each, and 140,000 are for consumers in Niš. The next project is the installation of 400,000 smart meters, to be financed by a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Niš will be one of the first cities in Serbia to be almost entirely covered by smart meters, Pavlović stressed, as quoted by Tanjug.
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