Hotline of power engineering specialists:
IDGC of Centre - Smolenskenergo division continues its work to identify on the Internet and suppress activities of sites that specialize in selling devices to distort meter readings for non-metered consumption of electricity. These actions are illegal and are regarded as advertising contrary to the law, and in relation to the offender, a decision may be made to initiate a case of an administrative offense.
So, according to the results of monitoring social networks and Internet sites in 2017, two Internet resources were identified, targeting the audience of the city of Smolensk and selling neodymium magnets for impact on electricity and water meters. The materials of the websites testified that advertisers violated Clause 1 of Part 4 of Article 5 of Federal Law of 13.03.2006. No. 38-FZ "On Advertising".
Smolenskenergo sent a letter on consideration of the issue on closing these sites and bringing the guilty persons to administrative responsibility to the competent authorities. Based on the results of consideration of the appeal, these resources were deemed to contain inappropriate placement of neodymium magnets advertising for stopping electricity, water and gas consumption meters, thereby inducing unlawful actions, such as unauthorized interference of consumers in the normal operation of meters, because it violated the requirements of Clause 1 of Part 4 of Article 5 of Federal Law of 13.03.2006 No. 38-FZ "On Advertising". After that, the owners of the sites themselves closed them, without waiting for the lock.
It should be noted that the guilty persons: both sellers and buyers of such products, can be brought to administrative or criminal liability. So, by the decision of the Smolensk Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, one of the site owners was found guilty of committing an administrative offense, which was expressed in violation of the requirements of Clause 1 of Part 4 of Article 5 of Federal Law of 13.03.2006 No. 38-FZ "On Advertising", and he was sentenced with an administrative fine.
Power engineers remind that punishment for energy theft is inevitable. And in case of detection of theft of electricity, the violator not only compensates the damage to the power grid company, but is also brought to criminal or administrative responsibility with payment of a fine. Since 1 January 2016 in Russia, administrative responsibility for unauthorized connection to grids and use of electric power, as well as violation of the rules for using electricity, rules for the device, and the operation of energy-consuming installations have been tightened up. Thus, any interference in the operation of measuring systems will ultimately lead to even greater expenditures than the payment for actually consumed electricity recorded by meters, since violators are forced to pay not only the amount of the stolen resource, but also fines.
