In September, losses were reduced to the lowest level ever recorded in Montenegro’s electricity distribution system. Specifically, losses fell to 8.90 per cent in the previous month, 1.09 percentage points lower than in the same period of the previous year, despite a 6.5 per cent increase in the energy taken!
– As promised, we are achieving excellent results. Thus, despite the continuous increase in consumption, we are managing to reduce losses and thereby make savings that are extremely important in view of the situation on the energy market. It is important for the Montenegrin public to understand that focusing on reducing losses is the only constructive response amid unprecedented turbulence in the energy market, and that this is precisely the direction in which we are acting and achieving record results.
Through intensive fieldwork to combat unauthorized consumption, CEDIS reduced network losses to a record-low 11.54 per cent, thereby reducing the total amount of electricity required to cover losses and achieving savings of approximately €3.3 million for the period January–September (based on the average prices CEDIS paid for electricity during the period in question).
The current loss rate of 11.54 per cent for the first nine months of the current year is 0.53 percentage points lower than in the same period of the previous year, despite a four per cent increase in electricity consumption. To provide a more accurate assessment of the results achieved, it should be emphasized that, without measures to combat unauthorized consumption on the network, the increase in energy taken would have been accompanied by stagnating or rising losses. Thanks to the measures implemented, the opposite trend was achieved, with record-low loss levels recorded, while 2,185,279,330 kWh was taken from the beginning of the year through to the last day of September—four per cent more than in the same period of the previous year.
The public should also be reminded of illegal construction, which for decades has irreversibly degraded the areas of almost all Montenegrin municipalities, while also damaging the electricity distribution network through illegal connections and the resulting network losses. Existing infrastructure is subject to unplanned loads, increasing maintenance costs and reducing the effectiveness of investments. In the field, the process of detecting illegal connections and bringing them within the framework defined by law is arduous and requires the involvement of a significant number of employees. For CEDIS, particularly amid current global uncertainty in the energy market and unprecedented increases in the prices of equipment used to maintain the electricity network, all of this represents a serious financial burden. We reiterate that tackling this deeply rooted and widespread problem requires systemic support from the prosecution and judicial authorities, as well as the police, whose support to date has been insufficient and inconsistent. In view of these negative factors, we believe that the results achieved are of particular value.
