Hotline of power engineering specialists:
For 10 months of 2017, specialists of IDGC of Centre - Belgorodenergo division revealed and stopped in the region 694 facts of non-metered consumption of electricity with a total volume of 14.7 million kWh. The damage from the illegal consumption exceeded 47 million rubles.
Non-contractual and non-metered consumption of electricity, or simply theft, are legally attributed to facts of undue enrichment, the responsibility for which lies both in the administrative and criminal fields. If the consumer refuses voluntarily to compensate for losses incurred by the company, the energy company applies to the court, after which the violator has to compensate the court costs and pay an administrative fine in the amount of 15,000 to 200,000 rubles (Article 7.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).
This year, on the initiative of the branch 119 lawsuits were instituted to recover the cost of non-contractual consumption for an amount exceeding 12 million rubles. Positive decisions have already been obtained for 93 of them. The value of non-metered consumption is measured in hundreds of thousands of rubles, because the amount of stolen goods is calculated according to Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 442 dated 04.05.2012, based on the capacity of the cable that is connected, that is, the permissible long-term current load of each lead-in wire, and for the period during which uncontracted consumption took place.
For example, the damage from the non-contractual consumption of a food processing plant in the village of Pushkarnoye in Belgorodsky district, identified by a crew of power engineers during a routine inspection, amounted to 907,653.96 rubles. The non-metered cable was connected to current transformers and the meter directly to the bus of the input distribution device of the enterprise. Such a violation clearly indicated the non-contractual consumption. The court satisfied the claims in full.
If a crime is committed by a group of persons by prior agreement or by an organized group, if, for example, the offender is a legal entity, and if the damage is classified as "particularly large", criminal responsibility is provided in the form of imprisonment for up to five years (the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Article 165, Part 2).
Checks and raids allow to reveal facts of non-contractual and non-metered consumption of electricity. This year, several dozen raids were initiated, some - accompanied by the administration, police and media representatives. All the revealed facts were made public.
Belgorodenergo urges citizens to report on electricity theft. A separate mailbox vorunet@mrsk-1.ru has been created at IDGC of Centre, where you can send information about cases of electricity theft. In the shortest time, all calls will be checked by the company’s specialists for reliability. You can also report a case of theft by calling the company’s 24-hour direct line at 8-800-50-50-115, short number at 13-50.
