India, the largest
democratic country of the world, provides shelter to more than 1.25 billion people. It is home to three times the population of the US though
geographically only one third of it. The infrastructure has been developed
enormously since its independence in 1947 but, even now many villages do not
have electricity. Uninterrupted power is dream for most of the population. In
this scenario, strange it may sound about 132 Billion units of electricity is
pilfered in India during 2011-12. About 70% of population of India still lives
in rural areas where agriculture provides the main livelihood to the majority.
Many people do not have electricity supply and even when it is available,
supply of electricity is erratic. When a utility starts providing 24 hrs power
supply to certain area, it finds a major place in the newspaper. The Ministry of
Power, though announced ‘Electricity to all by 2012’ as its objective, could
not achieve it so far and now extended traget to 2019.
People have to wait for hours to get the electric supply restored once a
snag develops somewhere, especially in
rural area where ‘no power’ is accepted as destiny. Development of energy
sector does not take place in tandem with the increasing demand and ever
spreading menace of Power theft has worsened the situation. The rapidly
growing population and rising urbanization has put great stress on energy
sector. India is power stressed. Increasing
vitality of economy is not matched by similar vigour in the Power sector which
is yet to wake up to the 21st century challenges.
It
is a fact that installed capacity has recorded growth. From a mere 1713MW
installed capacity in 1950s, it has risen to about 314642
MW by 2017. (CEA-Installed Capacity, 2017)About 33%
of Generation capacity comes under the states, 25 % under the Central
Government and the rest in private sector, which is now substantially
increasing role, thanks to new policies of the Government that gives increasing
thrust to Mega projects and Renewable sector with private partnership. Vertically integrated State Electricity Boards and
private utilities exist in Indian power sector where electricity is a
concurrent subject as both the center and state governments have definite role
in evolving direction and guidelines. But it is sad
fact the power theft has not been given due importance in the scheme of things.
India has approximately 6-10%
shortage in energy demand and the peak demand deficiency in some states is
nearly 25%, compels the Load Despatch Centres to throttle down resulting brown
out everyday peak period. About 80% of
the villages are electrified but it doesn’t mean that all households are
benefited. The Transmission and Distribution losses are restricted to around
10% in better managed utilities in the developed countries. Of the every 100
units generated in India, 35 units are lost on an average due to technical and
non-technical losses. (Power Sector, 2017) This staggering
figure 77% in some states! This sorry state hinges as much on inadequate
development of transmission and distribution lines as on other factors
including Power theft and irrational tariff structure.
Raising tariff
even for good reasons may not go well with the people. The distribution
companies take care not to antagonize the public as they know the proclivities
of the public. People are happy if a utility charges less and ready to overlook
the poor standards and service they receive. This is the basic attitude of the
middle class Indians which forms the majority of electricity consumers. Perhaps
this might have prompted to play safe by keeping current charges low thus
making it difficult to go for the necessary upgrading of lines and renovations
which requires huge investments. It is a sad fact that the Power sector is concentrated
mainly on increasing generation capabilities resulting in increased capital
cost rather than loss reduction exercise
which includes implementation of a mechanism to thwart power pilfering..
The distribution loss in India has increased
by 432% over a period of about a quarter of a century due to the reasons
explained above. No country can claim a fair position as far as losses are
concerned. The approximate cost of the distribution loss for the last quarter
century comes to around $100 Billion. India has adopted the European system of
drawing more Low-Tension lines, thanks to the British rule, which passed on
certain technical legacies along with culture and arts!. Many European
countries are very small, even smaller than majority of Indian states. Hence
their distribution loss is considerably low.
How have we
reached here? Theft of energy is the major singular cause of all disorders and
problems in power utilities. The money value involved in theft is about $4.5 Billion
dollar i.e., about 1.5% of GDP as per the statistics of the World Bank, few
years back. [Bhatia & Gulati, 2004] Poverty drives many to steal electricity and they form a majority,
while a few consider it as a white collar theft. (Prashar, & Sreenivasan, ,2015)
Delhi, the capital city, stands out as the worst case of power theft. As much
as 45% of the power generated was lost in the capital even after 2-3 years of
private participation .Now it has been brought down substantially but few
Divisions under BRPL and BYPL are
notorious for 40-60% loss.
What stops
utilities from eliminating Power theft? Vested interests of the stake holders
including appeasing vote bank, consumers, utility employees, poor enforcement
of law, habit of utilities to compound the power theft cases, prolonged
litigation and, of course, the socio- political situations. The poor
performance of state owned utilities in reduction of loss is due to weak
accountability, poor governance and inadequate investment. They have little
incentives to improved performance and any hard work goes unappreciated.
Private participation has raised hope of better efficiency and accountability .However,
it turns out that privatization of power sector is not a panacea for eliminating power
theft.
India
is world’s sixth largest energy consumer, accounting 3.4% of global energy
consumption. Due to its economic rise, the demand for energy has grown at an
average of 3.6%per annum over the past three decades. Distribution loss of Indian
Power sector, having long low tension lines, is ‘surrogate’ to Power Theft. [Steadman, 2011] Even after engaging the Central Industrial Security
Force (CISF), Delhi continues to enjoy the status of ‘capital of Power theft in
India’ and here even 20% AT&C loss is considered as fair. The problem of
corruption and vested electoral interest
have prodded authorities to turn a blind eye to theft of power and many go Scot free if they are very close to ”power”.
The erstwhile Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking was fed up with Power theft at the
connivance of employees. Now the power distribution has private participation.
When the new power companies have started conducting surprise inspections to
detect power theft, the unscrupulous people have shown signs of panic.
It
is estimated that about 777 Million units of electricity is being pilfered in
Hyderabad city, the cyber capital of India, in a year alone.(Sreenivasan,2017)
The cost works out to $ 75 Million.In some part of the city designated as ‘’sensitive,”
less as 50% of the consumers pay electricity charges, even though thousands of
electricity meters are installed on poles. Here, professional power theft
perpetrators are available who perform tampering of energy meter either permanent
or temporary nature. The Power sleuths in India has the credit of detecting
more than 75 varieties of high-tech Power theft in India in Electronic meters,
though these meters are claimed to have state- of-the- art technology. Remotely
operated Power theft, Frequency manipulation, Theft using Electro-static
discharge (ESD) on energy meter, Harmonics and other spurious signal
injections, umpteen methods of hardware tampering on energy meters are few
methods to mention. (Sreenivasan, 2017) The power sector all over the world is
closely observing new products that meet the challenges raised by the
perpetrators and recently an Indian Company has found a partial solution to Power theft using
Electro-static discharge in high end meters.A lot more is expected from meter
manufacturers all over the world.
Even
meters installed in substations are not spared by perpetrators. The feeders of a Sub- station in Musafar Nagar,
a city in North India were tampered with a remote operated shunt. The Substation
was feeding power supply to steel furnace factories nearby. The raid was
conducted under the leadership of the Minister and found energy meter- not at the
consumers’ premises, but at the Substation- was tampered with modern-day technology,
reminding us the usage that ‘fence itself eating the crop’. This may be a joint
effort of many who wanted to sabotage the energy audit system also.
In
Punjab, Power theft is rampant in border districts especially for operation of
tube wells and steel re-rolling mills which are current intensive in nature.
Unfortunately, any officer who puts an effort to tackle this menace invites
transfer, harassment, victimisation and a host of troubles .Farmers have been
provided with subsidized or free electricity through out the country and it is one
of the zones where electricity theft and misuse are maximum. In the state of Punjab,
when the technicians of utility went to attend a fuse off call from a consumer,
were surprised to find that even the Distribution Transformer (DT) was stolen for
its metal parts to be sold after taking them apart in scrap market . This
is not an instance of isolation.
If we
think that power theft is a rural phenomenon or only prevalent in slums, we are
for a rude shock. In Mumbai City alone, irregularities involving 1280 Million
units were detected in 3 years. Even the constitutionally recognized bodies
such as Zilla, Taluk and Gram Panchayath (Local self Government) in Bangalore
are reported to have performed power theft sending a shock message to the
society! Even the small state of J&K
is losing $ 0.25 Million a day by way of energy theft. With the onset of winter,
the energy consumption moves up by 20%.The resort to unscrupulous method is
rampant even among the people at the topmost rung of the society who have
developed meanest trick of pilferage according to the Power Development
Department. The department has no effective Anti Power theft squad but a few
officials who could not unearth even a small fraction of abnormality.
Pilferage of
power in the name of religion is taken for granted in India. It occurs during
almost all festivals, irrespective of the community or the state. A report says
97% of the organizers of festivals in Maharashtra State commit power theft.
It’s very difficult to detect power theft during that time, as all devotees
gather and attack the enforcement officials, as if the officials are from other
communities or an atheist deliberately
disturbing the festival. Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company
(MSEDCL) has gone to the extent of advising various organizations that conduct
festivals, not to venture into theft during the time of festivals. Usually the
light and sound contractors arrange generators for temporary use; but they seldom
operate them, instead venture into stealing electricity.
General
elections are yet another occasion to perform power theft in India. The police
are pre occupied with keeping the law and order and usually the menace of Power
theft goes unnoticed. In Tamil Nadu, during general election the venue of a
leader’s campaign spot was illuminated with about 300 fluorescent lamps. The
party had stolen electricity using hooks to add colour and light to the huge
hoardings and stages and also to display the huge election symbols which are
decorated with small bulbs. When top leaders come to political meetings, an
engineer is used to be posted at the place to ensure uninterrupted supply of
stolen power! In India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, large scale Power
theft is reported during general election time. Another significant aspect is
the abnormal use of electricity for agriculture purpose during these times, a
clear indication of misuse and theft. This has been done with the connivance of
local leaders of ruling party.( Golden & Min, 2012)
The
abduction of an engineer belonging to a utility from one of the North Eastern
states forced the utility to postpone the implementation of a plan to revamp
collection procedure. This happened when
the utility was just about to collect arrears and check power theft. In order
to boost the morale of the employees, a Managing Director and Senior officers
of a power Utility in North India, who decided to have first hand information
of theft detection had to face unruly mob and to retreat after stone pelting .A
senior Power sleuth in the Cyber city of Hyderabad had to seek police
protection even after his retirement from service, following continual threat
of perpetrators
The mighty people and even the law
makers indulge in theft of electricity. The Indian laws are stringent to punish the guilty in the case of
electricity theft but the time spend to conclude a case is too long. The state
of affairs in Power theft is pennywise and pound foolish. As the law permits to
compound the offence, its magnitude comes down to the level a petty traffic
violation case, where discharge of offence can be done by paying a small penalty.
Utilities across India have not treated power theft seriously the way it should
be. The reply to RTI to Discoms across India yielded poor responses and many
utilities even do not have the statistics of theft detected.
Indian
power sector is crippled by theft on one side and misuse on the other side.
Energy wasted in daily life on account of less efficient electrical appliances
is shocking. The simple guesstimate of waste and power theft says even the best
stabilizers are only 80% energy efficient. Considering 10 million odd Air
Conditioners in India, which are in operation for 5 hrs a day, the loss would
be 20 MU per day! And the annual loss would be $600 Million!!. With 314 GW power generation capacity, the energy available per
day will be 5275 Million units at 0.7 plf of which 20-25% ie. 1055 Million Units
of electricity is lost by way of Power theft every day causing annual loss of 6.5 Billion to the exchequer!
Energy meters are no more
instruments for recording electricity consumption. Consumer Metering and feeder
metering are one of the key approaches
to reduce losses and theft, coupled with the replacement of the conventional
electro mechanical meters with new electronic meters and the deployment of
state-of-the-art emerging technologies such as, AMR and AMI etc.to assist in
loss reduction and improved revenue collection. This may be more intensively
done with the aid of centrally aided Schemes and the requirements of energy
meters in coming decade will be more than of 100 million. The possibility of
rolling out smart meter technology is yet another way of controlling power
theft.Utilitiles are different in nature in India and hence the strategy to
reduce theft also varies. There should not be a common system thrust upon to
Discoms as strategy to reduce theft in one utility need not be successful in
another. Unless 100 % consumers are metered and electricity at various
distribution points are monitored, the Discoms can never think of attaining a
healthy financial status.
Conclusion
The above instances are only tip of the ice berg. Many utilities, now at a snail's pace, realize
the need to control Power theft, lest they should fall into darkness. Various
training to power engineers are being arranged and regularly updates them with
latest happening around the world. But crooks always have the ability to stay
one step ahead of the anti power theft detection system. They stay in their
business purely through their flair to circumvent any challenge that comes their
way. The R&D of electricity theft is moving faster than the best metering
system available in the world, which was revolutionized with the advent of ICs
and programmable logic circuits. India is now aiming at application of
Information Technology in Power sector especially for controlling Power theft
and losses. The R&D units of meter manufacturers have a great role to play
in designing tamper resistant energy meters with more features to withstand the
challenges from field. The repercussion of privatization on long run is not
clear as of now and the present indication points finger that privatization is
not the single remedy to control power theft. As the Indian power sector has
now realized need of controlling power theft incorporating latest technology,
it can be brought back to the right track and effective laws and updated theft
detection system with the aid of modern power system tools would help control
power Theft.(The author can be contacted
tamperfinder@gmail.com)
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