Hotline of power engineering specialists:
Rosseti Centre and Rosseti Centre and Volga Region carry out systematic activities to suppress non-metered and non-contractual electricity consumption. Power engineers carry out large-scale raid work, including, together with law enforcement agencies, identifying facts of illegal energy consumption and taking measures to compensate for damage and punish perpetrators.
A number of identified and suppressed large thefts is associated with mining of crypto assets. Several of these crimes were suppressed in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
On 27 May, employees of the security units of Rosseti Centre and Volga Region and the Nizhnovenergo branch during a check, conducted in conjunction with employees of the Department for fighting against economic crimes and police office No. 4 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Nizhny Novgorod, on the territory of Stroyport LLC on Moskovsky Highway found a sea container connected to two customer transformer substations, inside of which 61 mining farms operated. As it turned out during the trial, the equipment was installed in January 2020, cryptocurrency mining was carried out using energy that was not metered. At the same time, the farm owner involved in his illegal activity one of the employees of the Sormovsky Distribution Zone of the Nizhnovenergo branch, who received a monthly cash reward of 10 thousand rubles for concealing the theft of electricity. As a result of unlawful actions of an established group of persons, the branch suffered damage in the amount of over 2.8 million rubles. All persons involved were detained by police officers and fully admitted their guilt. The issue of initiating criminal proceedings and compensation for damage is being resolved.
A similar theft was prevented by the security unit of the Nizhnovenergo branch in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Nizhny Novgorod on 8 May in a production complex located on Nizhne-Valdayskaya Street. When examining the scene of an incident in one of the buildings, a hardware and software complex was discovered, consisting of more than 70 cryptocurrency mining farms, as well as a gypsum drying and production workshop and a carpentry workshop. The preliminary damage amounted to 7.8 million rubles. A statement was sent to the police on this fact. Verification is underway.
Earlier, in the capital of the Nizhny Novgorod region, during the processing of operational information, representatives of the security unit of Nizhnovenergo, together with employees of the branch’s specialized units and employees of the Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Department of the General Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, discovered 26 mining servers in illegal garage boxes on Rodnikovaya Street, illegally consuming electricity. The damage amounted to 5.4 million rubles. Based on the facts of energy theft, a statement was sent to the Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the General Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
“The actions of unscrupulous miners stealing electricity, not only prevent us from doing the most efficient work to ensure high-quality and reliable power supply to consumers, but also harm the socio-economic development of the regions. In each such case, as a rule, it is a matter of significant damage, energy is not credited with funds that could be used to create new capacities for connecting industrial, housing and social facilities to grids. We intend to continue the uncompromising fight against these crimes, seeking in each case the most severe punishment for energy thieves,” stressed Igor Makovskiy, General Director of Rosseti Centre - the managing organization of Rosseti Centre and Volga Region.
Rosseti Centre and Rosseti Centre remind that the legislation of the Russian Federation provides for severe penalties for persons illegally consuming electricity. In case of theft, the violator not only compensates for the damage caused to the power grid company, but is also held criminally or administratively liable with a fine. On 9 June 2019, amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation entered into force, according to which fines for double unauthorized connection to electric grids and for repeated unauthorized (non-metered) energy consumption doubled. Now in such cases, violators - individuals will be required to pay from 15 to 30 thousand rubles, legal entities - from 200 to 300 thousand rubles. Officials can be removed from their activity for a period of two to three years, and also a fine from 80 to 200 thousand rubles can be imposed on them.
It should be noted that conscientious consumers, who regularly pay electricity bills, also suffer from the criminal actions of energy thieves. As a result of theft of energy resources, voltage fluctuations in the grid occur, household appliances of neighbours break down, the likelihood of power outages and fires increases. Power engineers urge anyone who becomes aware of cases of theft of electricity, illegal connections to electricity grids to report this by the round-the-clock telephone of the Contact Centre: 8-800-50-50-115 (anonymous and toll-free call) or through an anonymous feedback form on the companies’ official sites.
