At the end of the summer season, the Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System is proud to highlight the results achieved. All the effort our company has invested over the past period, despite all the challenges the summer season brought, has paid off.
Given that CEDIS is subject to public criticism during both the summer and winter seasons, it is our moral obligation, particularly considering that we are one of the most socially responsible companies in the country, to present the public with a clear and accurate picture of the quality of the distribution system’s performance, the activities we carry out to improve our network and provide better service to our customers, and the results we achieve.
By recording interruptions in electricity supply, the indicators that represent the average duration of supply interruptions in minutes per electricity metering point (SAIDI) and the average annual frequency of supply interruptions per electricity metering point (SAIFI) showed the following:
Comparing the results for the first eight months of 2023 and 2024, SAIDI decreased from 25.14 hours to 16.7 hours (by 8.44 hours, or 33.56%), while SAIFI decreased from 17.31 to 14.71 (by 2.6, or 15%). This means that the duration of electricity supply interruptions continues to decrease year on year.
We emphasise that, if the downward trend compared with 2023 continues through the end of this year, this could be a record year in terms of quality indicators.
To be fully precise, we must point out that a significant number of interruptions during the period in question fall under the responsibility of the Montenegrin Transmission System (CGES). This is reflected in a 1.26-hour (100.44%) increase in SAIDI for unplanned interruptions in the 35 kV network. This is due to the large number of outages on the transmission network in 2024, which resulted in loss-of-voltage conditions. When an outage occurs on the transmission network, CEDIS’s options are limited. In certain situations, our company is forced to wait for voltage to be restored by CGES before it can distribute electricity to end users. The power outage that affected most of the country on 21 June (the so-called “blackout”), for example, increased SAIDI by 65 minutes. Some of the most recent transmission network outages that caused loss-of-voltage conditions occurred on 3, 19 and 28 August, leaving the municipalities of Kotor, Ulcinj and Herceg Novi without power.
As regards electricity supply interruptions, challenges to improving the quality of the distribution system’s performance also stem from the fact that demand in Montenegro continues to grow and construction work is increasing, occasionally resulting in damage to CEDIS infrastructure (mostly damage to the cable network caused by construction machinery). Such damage requires repairs and the installation of cable joints. However, experience shows that when a cable line has been damaged multiple times, its operating characteristics are nowhere near those of new infrastructure. A good example is the electricity supply to the municipality of Tivat, which is supplied from the 35/10 kV Tivat substation. This substation has a double cable connection to the 110/35 kV Tivat substation, where CEDIS receives electricity from CGES and distributes it to customers. The double connection ensures a reliable supply to customers even when one line is out of service (the so-called “n-1” reliability principle).
We must also not overlook the fact that the share of unplanned interruptions caused by third parties across all voltage levels has increased by 32.84%. Although data on requests received for the underground utility cadastre show that demand for these services increased by 50% (from 1 March 2023 to 31 December 2023, CEDIS received 236 requests for underground utility information, while from 1 January 2024 to 10 September 2024, it received 254 requests), there are still irresponsible companies and individuals who damage our infrastructure.
As for the growth in demand, the maximum recorded load this year was 591 MW, an increase of 49 MW, or 9%, compared with last year, when the maximum load was 542 MW. The increase in demand is also reflected in the maximum amount of energy taken from the CGES system over a 24-hour period: in 2024 this amounted to 11,517 MWh, compared with 10,843 MWh in 2023, an increase of 6.2%. Both records were set on 18 July 2024. Records for maximum power taken were broken at all six 110/35 kV substations in the coastal municipalities of Ulcinj, Bar, Budva, Kotor, Tivat and Herceg Novi. We emphasise that our coastal substations have never before taken such a large amount of energy during the summer period, as such records had previously been set during the winter season in northern Montenegro.
Despite all the challenges—including growing demand, a large number of outages on the transmission network and infrastructure damage caused by third parties—CEDIS is managing to improve the quality of the distribution system’s performance and reduce the number and duration of loss-of-voltage conditions.
