Montenegro relied on net electricity imports for around 30% of its power requirements in 2025, while transmission and distribution losses reached almost 464 GWh, highlighting both the country’s exposure to external markets and the scale of electricity that could potentially be recovered through network investment.
Preliminary Monstat energy-balance data show domestic electricity production of about 2,398.6 GWh during 2025.
Electricity imports totalled 5,865.7 GWh, while exports reached 4,833.8 GWh, leaving net imports of approximately 1,031.9 GWh.
On that basis, net imports accounted for around 30.1% of Montenegro’s total electricity requirements.
The figures provide a clearer statistical measure of a year in which the country’s power balance was unusually exposed to imports because the Pljevlja thermal power plant spent an extended period out of operation for reconstruction.
That outage contributed to an electricity import bill of almost €182 million in 2025.
The plant’s return in 2026 has since reduced import expenditure to less than €42 million, according to the Energy Ministry.
The Monstat data show why the financial effect was so large.
Montenegro produced less than 2.4 TWh domestically in 2025 while requiring more than 1 TWh of net imported electricity to balance the system.
Hydropower remained the dominant domestic source, accounting for approximately 60.3% of generation.
Thermal generation supplied around 23.8%, wind about 12.5% and solar roughly 3.4%.
The relatively low thermal share reflects Pljevlja’s extended outage rather than a permanent shift away from coal.
The generation mix also demonstrates Montenegro’s vulnerability to hydrology.
With around three-fifths of domestic output coming from hydro in 2025, rainfall and reservoir conditions can significantly change the country’s import needs from one year to another.
That is one reason the government and EPCG are expanding wind, solar and storage.
The data also expose another major issue: network losses.
Transmission and distribution losses reached approximately 463.8 GWh.
That equals roughly 13.5% of total electricity requirements.
The number is commercially significant because it represents electricity that must be produced or imported but does not reach paying end users.
Some losses are technically unavoidable.
Electricity is lost as heat when it moves through cables, transformers and other network equipment.
But high losses can also reflect ageing infrastructure, overloaded lines, metering problems and non-technical losses.
Reducing them can therefore provide a form of additional electricity supply without constructing a new power plant.
The scale becomes clearer when compared with industrial consumption.
Montenegro’s entire industrial sector consumed only around 130.4 GWh in the same period.
Network losses were therefore more than three times greater than industrial electricity consumption.
That does not mean all 464 GWh could be eliminated.
A modern electricity system will always have technical losses.
But even a partial reduction could have meaningful financial value.
A 100 GWh reduction, for example, would be equivalent to avoiding the need to produce or import 100 GWh every year.
The value would depend on wholesale electricity prices.
During tight regional markets, the avoided cost could be substantial.
That creates a strong investment case for CEDIS and CGES network modernisation.
Distribution grids are particularly important as Montenegro adds decentralised solar, electric vehicles and battery storage.
Networks designed primarily for one-way electricity flows from large power stations must increasingly handle generation and consumption at thousands of different points.
Modernisation therefore has two purposes.
It can reduce existing losses while also creating capacity for the next generation of energy assets.
Digitalisation will be part of that process.
Smart meters, automated substations and better network monitoring can help utilities identify where losses occur and distinguish technical problems from irregular consumption.
They also improve billing and reduce the need for manual meter reading.
Investment in transformers and lines can address physical losses where infrastructure is old or overloaded.
Montenegro’s planned renewable expansion makes the issue more urgent.
The country has issued dozens of planning conditions for solar and wind projects, but connection capacity remains a major constraint.
New generation cannot produce value if the network cannot transport the electricity.
That means grid investment should increasingly be evaluated alongside generation investment.
A megawatt saved through lower losses can sometimes be more valuable than another megawatt of intermittent generation.
The 2025 balance also illustrates the role of regional trade.
Montenegro imported almost 5.87 TWh and exported roughly 4.83 TWh, volumes far larger than the net import position.
That reflects the country’s role in regional electricity flows and trading rather than a simple one-way dependence on foreign power.
Electricity can be imported at one border and exported at another depending on prices, contracts and system conditions.
The 1.03 TWh net position is therefore the more useful measure of Montenegro’s underlying dependence.
Cross-border connectivity remains an economic advantage.
The subsea cable to Italy and links with neighbouring systems allow Montenegro to trade electricity and manage shortages.
The government is also discussing a second cable to Italy.
But interconnection works best when it complements a strong domestic system rather than compensating for persistent supply deficits.
That is the lesson of 2025.
When Pljevlja was unavailable and domestic generation was insufficient, imports became mandatory rather than opportunistic.
Montenegro still had access to electricity, but it paid heavily for it.
The 2026 recovery shows the reverse effect.
Restored domestic production has cut the import bill by more than three quarters.
The longer-term objective is to prevent the country from simply moving from dependence on coal to dependence on imports when Pljevlja eventually closes.
That will require new wind and solar, storage, stronger hydro flexibility and significantly improved networks.
The 463.8 GWh of losses should therefore be treated as part of the supply equation.
Building new generation attracts more attention, but electricity that disappears inside the grid has to be replaced at the same market price as electricity consumed by a customer.
For Montenegro, the 2025 balance makes both vulnerabilities visible at once: too much dependence on external power when domestic generation fails, and too much electricity lost before it reaches the meter.
Reducing the second problem would make managing the first considerably easier.
