Power theft cases decline in Doaba region

Jalandhar, April 23

There has been a significant drop in electricity theft cases in the Doaba region. As many as 1,175 electricity theft cases have been reported in the financial year 2021-22 as compared to 2,400 cases reported in 2020-21.

Officials said the theft cases have witnessed a decline owing to increased monitoring and checking being conducted by the enforcement wing of the PSPCL on a regular basis. They said the drop in theft cases had also helped the PSPCL receiving greater revenue.

“Enforcement wing in Jalandhar circle of the PSPCL detected revenue pilferage of over 20 crore for the second consecutive financial year,” the officials added.

Rajit Sharma, Deputy Chief Engineer, enforcement wing, Jalandhar circle, said revenue pilferage happens mostly due to electricity theft, tampering of power meters and meter reading concealment.

He said at present, there were over 20 lakh consumers of various categories in the north zone of the PSPCL and approximately 60,000 new electricity connections were released every year. Hence, monitoring the consumption pattern of this voluminous data was a tough job. “However, by increasing checking and monitoring, we have managed to bring down the theft cases in the region,” he added.

He said the PSPCL was regularly introducing the latest technology and tools to detect electricity theft and leakage of revenue due to wrong metering. “Our main focus is on data mining and analysis,” he said.

He said the data centre of the PSPCL at Patiala was equipped with the latest Meter Data Management System. Besides, electricity meters are being checked at sites through state-of-the-art electronic rotary substandard meters and secondary injection testing devices.

“The PSPCL is installing smart meters wherever theft of electricity is detected. Enforcement officers of the PSPCL have been extensively trained to extract data even from damaged meters and that leads to detection of energy consumption concealment and exact date of pilferage by the consumer,” Sharma said.

The Deputy Chief Engineer said the police station, anti-power theft, Jalandhar, PSPCL, had registered an FIR against Section 135 of the Indian Electricity Act, 2003, against 1,075 consumers during 2021-22. Meanwhile, 80 outsourced meter readers were terminated during the past three years for involvement in electricity theft, concealment of readings in the north zone of the PSPCL.