Hotline of power engineering specialists:
Almost two million rubles were collected from an individual entrepreneur, the owner of a fish farm in the small village of Kamenka of Novooskolsky district of the Belgorod region for non-contractual electricity consumption. The plaintiff in the case was IDGC of Centre - Belgorodenergo division.
In the course of a raid held in August last year to curb power theft the power engineers revealed the customer’s electrical equipment unauthorizedly connected to a 10 kV overhead line in the absence of an energy supply contract.
On this fact, an act was drawn up indicating the period of unauthorized connection and losses calculated according to RF Government Resolution No. 442 of 04.05.2012, based on the cable transmission capacity. The volume of non-contractual consumption amounted to 299.4 MWh, which in monetary terms is equivalent to 1.996 million rubles.
After the violator refused to compensate the damage caused to the company voluntarily, the branch filed a claim with the Arbitration Court of the Belgorod region, which satisfied the claims in full. The 19th Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision.
The power engineers remind that the legislation provides for a strict punishment for energy thieves. In case of detection of theft of electricity, the violator not only compensates for the damage to the power grid company, but is also brought to criminal or administrative responsibility with payment of a fine. It should be noted that since 1 January 2016, Russia has tightened administrative responsibility for unauthorized connection to grids and use of electricity, as well as violation of the rules for the use of electricity and rules for the construction and operation of energy-consuming plants. In particular, the amount of fines for unauthorized connection and use of electricity has been increased.
Bona fide consumers, who regularly pay bills for electricity, suffer greatly from criminal acts of violators: because of thefts, there are voltage fluctuations in the grid, household appliances are out of order, the probability of failures, fires and accidents increases.
Reports on theft of electricity and equipment around the clock are taken by calling the direct line of IDGC of Centre at 8-800-50-50-115 or 13-50.
