PPC Energie reported that 5,000 households in Romania shifted approximately 125 MWh of electricity use into designated hours during a four-month smart-meter pilot. The supplier used targeted price incentives to encourage customers to change when they consumed power, rather than relying on energy-storage installations. The results, disclosed on October 30, show how digital notifications and retail pricing can support measurable demand flexibility.
Under the Energie Electrică Activă Zero programme, participating households paid nothing for the active-energy component of electricity consumed during selected daytime hours from June to September 2026. Network charges, taxes and other regulated bill components still applied. Across 312 qualifying hours on 52 days, participants consumed 809 MWh. PPC estimates that about 125 MWh was moved into those hours, mainly from evening and overnight periods.
The average participant saved approximately €27 over the programme. The shifted volume represents a change in the timing of consumption, not a 125 MWh reduction in total electricity demand. The pilot also points to a potential model for Southeast European suppliers using smart-meter data and targeted offers to influence household electricity use and reduce supply costs.
Advance notice and daytime pricing
The offer was open to customers whose smart meters were integrated into Romania’s intelligent metering infrastructure. Eligible customers registered in May, and all 5,000 places were filled within five days. That pace suggested interest in differentiated tariffs, although participation was voluntary and the group was not necessarily representative of the wider residential market.
PPC identified the qualifying periods at least 12 hours in advance through email and its myPPC application. Pricing the active-energy component at zero during those hours gave households an incentive to reschedule flexible activities. The programme did not require automatic control of domestic appliances.
To assess the response, PPC compared participants’ hourly consumption profiles with those of eligible customers who had not enrolled. On qualifying days, participants used approximately 40% of their daily electricity between 10:00 and 17:00, against an estimated 34% without the incentive. At some midday hours, consumption was as much as 26% above the estimated comparison profile. The company attributes approximately 125 MWh of shifted demand to the programme.
Those findings indicate that some residential demand can respond to commercial incentives without appliances being controlled automatically. They also distinguish demand shifting from energy saving: the reported effect concerns when electricity was used. The comparison provides an estimate of the programme’s effect rather than a direct measurement of consumption that would otherwise have occurred.
Smart meters as retail infrastructure
Smart meters have traditionally been supported as a means of improving billing accuracy, enabling remote readings and providing better network information. PPC’s pilot showed another potential use: allowing a supplier to build an offer around measured hourly consumption and check whether customers changed their behaviour. This may matter increasingly when wholesale procurement costs vary substantially between hours.
Encouraging demand during cheaper procurement periods could improve a supplier’s portfolio economics, provided the savings exceed incentives, implementation costs and the cost of any additional electricity consumed. Similar offers could use dynamic retail tariffs, targeted discounts, customer-management applications or automated control of suitable equipment. Electric water heating, air conditioning, washing appliances and EV charging are examples of loads that can sometimes be rescheduled.
The pilot did not establish that automated appliance control produced the measured shift. Nor did it show that customers were paid as qualified balancing-market resources. It was a supplier-led retail flexibility initiative, not a conventional virtual power plant or a formally dispatched balancing service.
Customer responses and commercial costs
PPC surveyed 1,469 participants after the programme. Among respondents, 94% said they had shifted or postponed appliance use at least occasionally to benefit from the zero-active-energy periods. About 95% considered the programme successful, while 92% said notifications arrived early enough for them to adjust consumption. The responses support the consumption analysis, but they represent survey respondents rather than every participant and are not an independent evaluation.
For suppliers, the results point to a possible use of customer engagement and consumption data beyond competition on fixed electricity prices. Financial incentives for predictable demand changes could allow a company with a sufficiently large portfolio to influence aggregate purchases and potentially limit exposure to expensive procurement hours. Whether those effects can be measured consistently and turned into sustainable margins remains the commercial issue.
PPC has not published a full financial assessment covering procurement savings, implementation costs, customer-acquisition expenses and net profitability. The average household saving therefore cannot be equated with either supplier profit or an electricity-system saving. The pilot demonstrates a change in customer consumption patterns, but does not establish the net financial value of that change.
Relevance for neighbouring markets
The Romanian results are relevant to Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary, where wider smart-meter deployment could support more sophisticated retail electricity services. In Serbia, the commercial opportunity would involve combining advanced metering and digital customer communication with offers that encourage households and businesses to respond to system conditions. Such arrangements could involve suppliers, distribution companies, technology providers and industrial energy-service businesses.
Installing meters alone is not enough to deliver retail flexibility. Suppliers also need reliable interval data, appropriate customer consent, compatible billing systems and commercial arrangements that accurately reflect incentives on bills. Regulation must address consumer protection, transparency and the position of customers who cannot shift their electricity use.
For Montenegro and other smaller Western Balkan markets, pilots could test the commercial viability of flexible retail products before broader implementation. PPC’s programme offers measured evidence that some Romanian households were willing and able to change the timing of consumption. It does not yet show whether that behaviour can be sustained at larger scale or whether procurement savings can fund attractive incentives.
Flexibility as a retail product
The programme illustrates how a supplier’s offer can extend beyond selling a set quantity of electricity at a contractual tariff. It can also reward customers for consuming at times that have greater value within its procurement portfolio. That approach combines smart-meter infrastructure, consumption analytics, digital communication and retail-price incentives.
If demand shifting proves commercially sustainable, the timing of electricity use could become a distinct retail energy service across Southeast Europe, creating value without additional generation capacity. The remaining test is whether larger-scale participation produces procurement savings sufficient to support the customer incentives.
