Hotline of power engineering specialists:
On 27 June, IDGC of Centre held a large-scale action "NO Theft!" in its regions of operation (11 subjects of the Central Federal District). Participants of the event, whose goal was to draw the attention of the general public to the problem of non-metered and non-contractual energy consumption, were more than a thousand employees of the company.
The date of the action was not chosen by chance. The Youth Day is celebrated on 27 June in Russia, and the main driving force of the "NO Theft!" was just representatives of the Youth Councils of IDGC of Centre’s branches. The power engineers conducted explanatory work with citizens in public places, distributed thematic information materials, talked about the importance of combating energy theft, what negative consequences it could bring to bona fide consumers and how violators can suffer themselves.
One of the main places of the action were festive events that took place on the Youth Day, which celebrated its 60th anniversary this year, in cities of Central Russia. In a number of regions, young energy specialists, together with specialists, who conducted planned raids to combat non-metered and non-contractual energy consumption, visited areas of individual residential development.
The largest event was organized in the Tver branch of the company: about two hundred employees went to streets of cities and towns of the Tver region. In the Voronezh region volunteers assisted organizers of the action - students of the power faculty of the International Institute of Computer Technologies, in the Yaroslavl region - students of the Ivanovo State Power Engineering University, who have their practice at the local branch of the company.
In the Belgorod region, where the power engineers of IDGC of Centre covered with the explanatory work more than 40 settlements, the action was effective not only from the information point of view. In the village of Znamenka in Starooskolsky district, its participants, together with raid-running electricians and employees of the local administration, recorded a fact of energy theft: one of residents was unauthorizedly connected to the grid and consumed electricity illegally. The power engineers compiled an act on non-metered consumption, and now the owner has to compensate more than 50 thousand rubles for electricity consumed "bypassing" the meter.
The problem of energy theft for Russia is extremely urgent. In the regions of responsibility of IDGC of Centre only for the first four months of this year, about two and a half thousand facts of illegal consumption of electricity with a total volume of about 80 million kWh were detected and suppressed (for comparison: a family of four consumes an average of 200-250 kW*h per month). Citizens, 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.
IDGC of Centre reminds 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. At the same time, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for punishment to power thieves up to imprisonment for up to two years. And the administrative responsibility for the theft of electricity since January 1, 2016 in Russia has been toughened. In particular, the amount of fines for unauthorized connection and use of electricity has been increased.
IDGC of Centre uses funds, recovered from power thieves, among other things, to finance the main production activities that ensure reliable and uninterrupted power supply to bona fide consumers.
