Something is wrong with the reading of meters in Elektrodistribucija Srbije, right in January, and it has been going on for years. Or, perhaps, too little is actually being done.
Some consumers are also complaining about irregular electricity bills this January, according to consumer associations. Such a situation repeats itself every few years. In this period, citizens receive paper-enlarged and incorrectly read December bills electricity bills, arriving in January. If this January also turns out to be problematic, it will be the fourth time in 12 years that huge, incorrectly read figures arrive in January.
Željko Marković, the former the director of the Directorate for Distribution in the Electric Power Company of Serbia, as well as EPS Snadbevanja, thinks that the reasons for the errors in the accounts are - wrong meter reading. Why mistakes happen with December accounts, Marković offers a potential answer - in the celebration of the state sector.
"The reading of December accounts is done right after the New Year. Then there are holidays and human error probably occurs," says Marković.
They should celebrate, and we should overpay
It may be difficult for Elektrodistribucija employees, who potentially work weaker and more carelessly tired from the holidays, to concentrate. However, the people who receive in January, when we are all, as a rule, noticeably worn out, even overcharged and unused kilowatts - there is certainly no reason to celebrate.
Dejan Gavrilović from "Efektiva" confirms for "Vreme" that errors in accounts are indeed repeated in the winter months.
"In addition to the fact that there may be less and worse work in January. Obviously, the winter months are the period when electricity is consumed more because many people use it for heating. It can be a problematic or convenient situation, depending on which side you are on," says Gavrilović. "It's certainly problematic for citizens, because they get a bill for something they didn't use, and it's potentially suitable for the person who charges and has a much higher income. Because, if more electricity is consumed then, they may be counting on the fact that citizens won't notice irregularities."
He reminds that it is still a state-owned company and gives an example of an uncleaned city during the holidays, when a lot of snow fell, and one of the explanations was that many drivers of "Belgrade Road" - either on sick leave.
In EPS, when asked by "Vremena" about potential problems with accounts, they say that "there is no question of that".
"There is no question of, as you state, 'constant repetition of problems with electricity bills in December'. This is also shown by the data, because the number of complaints filed in January did not increase compared to the previous period and is only 0,46 percent compared to the number of bills issued," they added.
All consumers who have doubts about the correctness of the account, this company explains, can submit a complaint by e-mail to the e-mail address [email protected] , on the "EPS Account Insight" portal, by phone (toll-free phone line) at phone number 0800111202 or in person at our branches.
Oman every few years
Errors were previously acknowledged in the EPS itself.
Thus, in 2014, EPS confirmed that the higher bills of Nišli for the consumed electricity for December 2013 were the result of "human factor error". The director of EPS himself is with the families of Nis then apologized for the millions of bills. It was then pompously proposed to replace those responsible in the "Jugoistok" electrical distribution company, which deals with Niš electricity bills.
Three years later, in 2017, the internal control of EPS found several irregularities when reading meters and calculating citizens' electricity consumption. And then the problem was in January, for the December calculations. Complaints to the EPS were massive, and people stood in line for hours. The main reasons cited are, again, errors in manual meter reading, poor estimation of consumption, as well as technical problems with new systems.
At that time, it was also suspected that the bills were inflated even so that some organizational units of Distribution would show better business results at the end of the year, which is why the contract with the group of companies that read the meters was terminated.
Aleksandar Vučić, who was prime minister at the time, also announced the investigation. The case reached the police and the prosecutor's office, but the epilogue, if any, is not known. Insider wrote.
"What is this, my people!"
Elektrodistribucija did not even skip the year 2023.
"What is this my people!", were the cries of the citizens of Serbia who received, again, increased December electricity bills at the beginning of 2024. Some by more than 600 percent!
At the time, the Association "Effectiva" said that they thought that such bills were obtained by improper reading or that they were even the product of it. that there was no reading at all. As they explained, the fact that EPS allowed private companies to read the meters should not concern the end consumers. However, EPS claimed at the time that the number of complaints had not increased.
A similar fate befell consumers in January 2026.
While some complain that they received slightly higher bills even though they spent the same, or even less, than in November, others received up to three times higher amounts, the media wrote.
One "Danasa" reader states that her electricity bill in November amounted to slightly more than 4.000 dinars, while in December it jumped to around 15.000 dinars. Even though it is heated with electricity, she points out that she used even less during December, considering that she was on the road since December 22. One viewer of N1 said that he normally receives a bill of 5.000 dinars, but now he received - 55.000.
Who reads the electricity, if the tender failed?
An additional problem this year is that the electricity meters have to be read by the electricity distribution employees themselves. As "Vreme" already wrote, the tender for meters was rejected several times due to the suspicion of a rigged process.
That is why, from the summer of 2025, electricity meters will be read by the employees of Elektrodistribucija Srbije themselves for 10 to 15 days a month. To this field work they also forced senior employees from the administration.
As "Vreme" found out, some workers of the electrical distribution company they found a way to avoid reading the meter, which is not their job.
"Some employees gave a quarter of their salary to students or unemployed people from the region, so they go from house to house and read meters for them," said a "Vremena" source at the time. "Thus, the electricity distribution workers may have less money, but at least half the month they sit at home and do nothing."
How have they all been doing this January?
