Electricity bills / Electricity thefts with a background of accuracy

In the midst of significant increases in electricity tariffs in June, the burden on consumers from electricity theft is being highlighted again, the detection of which is the responsibility of the administrator (DEDDIE) through the self-explanatory measurements and checks on the well-known clocks (meters), which are suddenly discovered and appear as a success. We recall that power theft has recently been attributed to a significant part of the increased electricity prices (as network losses burdened by wholesale and passed on to retail), despite the fact that there is no clear data to determine the total network losses and the amounts that actually correspond to power theft but also in the final burden on consumers every year.

On Wednesday, DEDDIE hastened to present data on checks and confirmed rheumatic fevers during the first five months of the year, being pleased, since, compared to the average for the corresponding period last year and 2022, the checks of possible rheumatic fevers that were carried out increased by 65% ​​(from 8,000 to 13,000). However, these comparisons are probably not apt, as it is not mentioned that due to the “crackdown” of electricity thefts, the monthly counts on consumers’ watches have started gradually since January and were expected to be completed by the end of June nationwide. In fact, the administrator had calculated around 15.9 million euros the additional cost of the monthly counting (without for now a new burden on the consumers’ accounts), while, as he states, they needed to strengthen human resources, digitize the internal operation and systems and modern portable equipment.

The obvious

It is worth noting that until recently the self-explanatory measurements that DEDDIE has to make in many cases were almost never done. Especially in recent years there are not a few consumer complaints about “disappeared” DEDDIE workshops (contractual or not) and calculations that were not done for many months, and suddenly there were accounts with settlements that exceeded 6 or 8 months or even a year and corresponding , cumulative exorbitant charges of even thousands of euros, which households were unable to repay and were forced into settlements (installments) through no fault of their own. The only safe approach for consumers suffering from indifference was for them to enter their indications at regular intervals electronically or by telephone. However, the manager is talking today about the effort made in the last two years and about its maturation…

Electricity thefts and collections

Obviously, as long as checks are carried out, violations are also found and in fact, according to the DEDDIE, the total of electricity thefts found, for which a relevant debt was attributed and a letter was sent to the debtor, has increased by 50%, as it amounts to 6,000, compared to 4,000 the corresponding between 2023 and 2022 (again a controversial comparison since controls were intensified this year). It is worth remembering that in an update that was made for the first time in 2018 with official data, it was mentioned that in 2016 the total number of electricity thefts amounted to 11,528 cases, while in 2017 (up to October) the total number of lawsuits filed by the company that reached the court in Athens and Thessaloniki for cases of localized rheumatism increased tenfold and reached 2,971, compared to 324 cases in 2015.

At the same time, the DEDDIE reports a great improvement in the rates of debt collection from electricity thefts, “which are indirectly returned to consumers”, and specifically from the beginning of the year until today it has collected about 8.5 million euros from electricity theft cases in recent years, while the corresponding amount last year and the year before was 6.5 million euros on average. Based on the current pace of work, the administrator estimates that by the end of the year, more than 30,000 electricity theft checks will have been carried out nationwide, while the collections are expected to exceed 20 million euros.

Big consumers

DEDDIE finally points out that it is also targeting large customers in the low and medium voltage, as with the use of appropriate tools for the analysis of measurement data from multiple sources of information, such as for example from the Telemetry Center, cases of probable rheumatism. Indicatively, it is stated that out of 400 targeted checks on large customers (No. 5-6-7 and medium-voltage services) in ten days, 35 power thefts occurred, which are estimated to correspond to lost energy of 4,800 MWh and entail payments by the users of these services of more than 1 .3 million euros.