Hotline of power engineering specialists:
Employees of Rosseti Centre Belgorodenergo together with representatives of the administration, police and the media conducted a raid to identify electricity theft in Valuysky district of the region. Two facts of unauthorized connection were discovered, the damage amounted to more than 100 thousand rubles.
During the raid, the power engineers checked metering devices of individuals and legal entities who were suspected of non-metered and non-contractual electricity consumption. The first fact of theft was found in a residential building on Surzhikov Street. During a detailed examination of the metering circuit, it turned out that the residents voluntarily connected a boiler and other equipment through a hidden wire and consumed electricity bypassing the meter.
A little later, the crew recorded a similar fact in Lugovoy Lane. Without entering the house, the power engineers noticed an additional input not connected to the meter. Electricity was used to heat a house disconnected from gas supply. The connection itself was done in a makeshift way, which could lead to a fire and endanger the lives of people.
According to the facts of non-metered consumption revealed during the raid, acts were drawn up and recalculation of illegally consumed electricity was made. As a result, the owner of the house on Surzhikov Street will pay more than 80 thousand rubles, in Lugovoy Lane - about 40 thousand rubles. If within 10 days the violator does not compensate the damage, the branch will appeal to the court with a request for the enforcement of the resulting debt.
Since 9 June of this year, federal laws in Russia have toughened the punishment for unauthorized connection to electric grids. For repeated illegal connection, individuals are required to pay from 15 to 30 thousand rubles, officials - from 80 to 200 thousand rubles (an alternative punishment is disqualification for a period of two to three years), legal entities - from 200 to 300 thousand rubles.
According to Vladislav Korzhavykh, the deputy chief for sale of services in Valuysky Distribution Zone of Rosseti Centre Belgorodenergo, facts of illegal power consumption are found both in the private sector and in small businesses, where, in order to save on costs, owners intervene in metering systems, underestimating readings of electricity meters. Since the beginning of the year, Belgorodenergo’s employees have identified 252 cases of non-metered consumption of 2.7 million kWh in the amount of 5.4 million rubles and processed 236 facts of non-contractual consumption of 2.5 million kWh. The damage from the latter exceeded 8.5 million rubles.
As Vladislav Korzhavykh explained, in Valuysky city district there are 628 package transformer substations, 128 of which are equipped with technical metering devices that allow more accurate identification of loss sections. By the end of 2020, all package transformer substations in Valuysky district will be equipped with such metering devices. There are other well-established ways to deal with violators. Special control panels of commercial metering are installed in enterprises with doubtfully low power consumption on supplying 10 (6) kV overhead lines. Through communication channels, metering devices transmit current consumption data to the server. One of the control panels was installed on a 10 kV power line, providing power to the Valuysky oil mill. By reconciling the paid volumes with the control panel and the meter, the power engineers determined that the consumer’s meter takes into account only 25% of the volume of electricity, after which it was transferred to calculations with the control panel. In total, there are already 12 such smart metering points in Valuyki. According to the power engineers, smart meters make metering transparent and settlements with consumers as accurate as possible.
