The funding will allow EDS to replace outdated electromechanical meters with around 400,000 new smart meters, the EIB said in a statement on Thursday. Smart meters will help EDS to cut electricity losses, elevate collection rates, and facilitate the integration of renewables, the lender noted.
The project will be co-financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the EU budget contribution under the Western Balkans Energy Support Package, the EIB said.
“The European Union has already donated 110 million euro for the installation of over half a million new meters, and we plan to replace most of the existing meters by the end of the decade,” Serbia’s energy minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said during the signing ceremony.