Hotline of power engineering specialists:
The branch “Rosseti Centre Kurskenergo” summed up the implementation of measures to identify and suppress non-metered and non-contractual electricity consumption for 11 months of 2019.
In the period under review, the energy company revealed 511 facts of non-contractual and non-metered energy consumption with a total volume of over 4 million kWh. The amount of damage exceeded 9 million rubles.
A major act on the fact of non-metered electricity consumption with a volume exceeding 511 thousand kWh was drawn up in the gardeners’ non-commercial partnership “Khimfarm”. The amount of damage caused to the branch was more than 3.8 million rubles. A criminal case has been instituted on the revealed fact (under paragraphs “a”, “b”, Part 2, Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The facts of uncontracted electricity consumption were recorded in the condominium “Kursk”. Material damage to Kurskenergo amounted to 820 thousand rubles. The case file was sent to law enforcement authorities for decision making within the framework of the current legislation.
In December 2019, experts from the electricity metering department and the security department of Kurskenergo found the largest fact of non-metered electricity consumption at one of dairy enterprises in the village of Otreshkovo of the Kursk region. When conducting a routine inspection of the meter, it was revealed that the seal installed on the current transformer in the 10/0.4 kV transformer substation owned by the consumer was damaged (the colour changed). The colour change of the seal occurred due to exposure of the current transformer to a strong magnetic field to distort readings of the meter. An act on the non-metered consumption of electricity was drawn up, the consumer will have to compensate the damage to the energy company by tens of millions of rubles.
Kurskenergo’s experts warn that unauthorized use of electricity entails both administrative and criminal liability, falling under the scope of Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Causing property damage by fraud or breach of trust” (punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to five years). The power engineers remind that illegal connections can cause power surges and short circuits in the grid. At the same time, the implementation of unauthorized connections threatens serious injuries, even deaths, to violators themselves.
