Hotline of power engineering specialists:
For 10 months of 2019, employees of Rosseti Centre Belgorodenergo revealed 290 facts of non-metered and 263 cases of uncontracted electricity consumption. The amount of damage caused to the branch exceeded 18 million rubles. More than a hundred facts of theft were suppressed in the Valuysky district of the region, where another raid on checking consumers’ metering systems took place.
The power engineers, together with representatives of the district administration, police and the media, checked the meters, the presence of seals and the condition of the wiring in the private sector and at small businesses. As a result of the raid, three facts of non-metered consumption in residential buildings of the villages of Znamenka and Logachevka were revealed.
In a private house in the village of Znamenka, the power engineers found a violation of the seal on the terminal cover of the meter. According to the owners, they inherited such a meter from the former owners, however, according to the law, after the acquisition of the home ownership, the new owner is responsible for the metering devices. The specialists drew up an act on non-metered electricity consumption and recalculated electricity based on standards using an increasing factor of 10.
In the village of Logachevka, the raid participants immediately discovered two facts of non-metered consumption. In a house on Vatutin Street there was no terminal cover on the meter, therefore, the consumer had free access to live parts. And in a house along Kirov Street they were faced with an unauthorized connection to the grid due to the rupture of the zero conductor.
In both cases, acts were drawn up and the calculation of illegally consumed electricity was made. If the violator does not voluntarily pay the resulting debt, it will be forcibly collected through the court.
“On each metering device there are seals of the manufacturer, the state calibration officer and the energy supply organization. Additionally, we install anti-magnetic seals. Only an employee of the power company can open the meter. Any intervention in the operation of the device by the consumer, opening or damage to the seals is an unauthorized interference in the operation of the metering mechanism and serves as evidence of non-metered consumption,” explained Vladislav Korzhavykh, the deputy chief for sale of services of the Valuysky Distribution Zone. “To identify violators, we analyze the total amount of electricity supplied and consumed, then we look at the balance on individual lines, then we narrow down the search to a transformer substation. And where the balance does not converge, we analyze each consumer.”
In the Valuysky urban district, there are 628 transformer substations. By the middle of next year, all of them will be equipped with technical metering devices, which will allow faster and more accurate determination of centres of electricity losses. In addition, each month power engineers install 500 antimagnetic seals, a special indicator of which is triggered when a magnet is exposed to the meter. An additional method of controlling legal entities is the installation of metering devices that record the consumed electricity. In some cases, the difference between the data of the control meter and the settlement one reaches 75%. So, a Valuysky enterprise consumed 60 thousand kWh, and paid for 15 thousand kWh. The control device recorded the difference, the power engineers made an act on non-metered consumption of 600 thousand rubles, plus 300 thousand rubles of a fine. The consumer will have to pay almost a million rubles.
Belgorodenergo reminds that non-metered and uncontracted electricity consumption in accordance with Article 7.19 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation entails the imposition of an administrative fine on individuals in the amount of 10 to 15 thousand rubles, for legal entities - from 100 to 200 thousand rubles. For repeated illegal connection since 2019 the fine has almost doubled. For especially large theft is imprisonment for up to two years. In addition, unauthorized connection or interference with the metering device can endanger the life and health of people. Hidden wiring, inserts into the power supply circuit often cause short circuits and fires, and the quality of the electric energy decreases.