Businessmen in Serbia are facing a new increase in electricity prices. Electric Power Company of Serbia (EPS) it submitted new supply offers to companies with electricity, which predict a price increase of eight to 12 percent, writes Dunja Marić for The new economy.
The price of electricity for the economy so far, in the previous year, amounted to 94 euros per megawatt-hour. However, EPS started sending businessmen offers for concluding new contracts - with higher prices.
Two offers
As Zoran Drakulić, owner of the company "Point Group", told Nova Ekonomija, EPS sent two offers. The first offer is that electricity will cost 106,14 euros per megawatt-hour until the end of the year. The second offer is to conclude a contract that will last longer, until the end of 2026, and that the price of electricity will be 101,9 euros per megawatt-hour.
Therefore, businessmen who accept the contract, which will be valid until the end of next year, will pay about eight percent more for electricity than before. Those who choose a shorter contract will pay 12 percent more for electricity.
For Drakulic, this offer is unacceptable.
"The new prices are quite high, and we pellet producers have a big problem because in the region - Montenegro, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and even Croatia, where pellets are imported, the electricity prices for the economy are much lower. We simply cannot accept this, even if we had to close the factory," says Drakulić.
"And oil is expensive for us, we simply have an expensive country. But we cannot accept this, at the price of closure," concludes Drakulić.
Metalac also received a new, more expensive offer from EPS, says Dragoljub Vukadinović, president of the Metalac Group, for New Economy. However, he points out that this company has still not signed this contract with the new prices.
On the other hand, Zoran Matijević says that Industria mesa Matijević has not received a new EPS offer, given that this company has a contract valid until the end of this year.
Electricity price previously reduced
Since May 1 last year, the price of electricity for the economy has been reduced by about 20 percent.
Previously, in 2023, businessmen paid 119,67 euros per megawatt-hour.
Why is the price of electricity for businesses rising again, we tried to find out from EPS. Until the publication of this text, however, we have not received answers to the questions we sent to them.
Changed methodology for price calculation
In 2024, there was another change for businessmen. Namely, in September of last year, EPS adopted new methodologies for the formation of electricity prices for customers on commercial supply, that is, for the economy. As announced by EPS, the goal of the new methodologies is to form an adequate electricity price with the companies that would satisfy their needs, without jeopardizing their finances.
As experts in the field of energy explained at the time, the methodology works because the supplier, in this case EPS, tries to group customers based on certain parameters, which is usually the amount of electricity they consume on a monthly or annual basis. It also takes into account whether it consumes more electricity at night or during the day. Such data is used to determine price ranges for different customer groups.
For example, in the group of customers who consume less electricity, electricity is usually more expensive. Conversely, for large customers, that is, those who consume a large amount of electricity, the supplier can provide certain discounts.
Source: New Economy
