Serbia’s electricity distribution company, Elektrodistribucija Srbije (EDS), will continue replacing old electricity meters with smart meters, and by the end of 2026, one in every three meters in the country is expected to be smart, said EDS Director Biljana Komnenić.
At the conference “Automation for a Modern Distribution Network,” organized by EDS in cooperation with Energy of the Balkans, Komnenić stated that there are currently around 600,000 smart meters installed in Serbia. She emphasized that replacing traditional meters with smart ones is a key step toward reducing electricity consumption. Komnenić also noted that while the EDS team has worked diligently over the past two years, further improvements are still needed to reach the desired level.
Dejan Popović, President of the Council of the Energy Agency of Serbia (AERS), mentioned that the number of smart meters in Serbia has increased nearly thirtyfold compared to the previous year.
He also stressed the importance of Serbia staying in step with automation and modernization trends in the energy sector, especially with those in the European Union. EDS has launched a large-scale project on the ground to automate the medium-voltage electricity distribution network, in cooperation with the French company Schneider Electric.
The main benefit of this project will be the restoration of power to end users within 30 seconds of a power outage or network disruption.
A bilateral agreement between Serbia and France enabled the implementation of the project, which is based on a 2023 contract between EDS and Schneider Electric worth 140 million euros. The funds will be used to supply equipment, systems, and software for advanced electricity distribution network management.
EDS, as the distribution system operator, supplies electricity to more than 3.8 million customers in Serbia.
The concept of medium-voltage network automation has been improved with the emergence of Smart Grid technology. The modernization and automation of the distribution system are also necessary to meet new legal requirements, as the electricity market will soon include new participants such as active consumers, aggregators, and other forms of buyers and producers, which will require greater flexibility.
