Electricity Theft In South Africa

Electricity theft is the criminal practice of stealing electrical power it is a crime and is punishable by fines and or incarceration it belongs to the non technical losses.

Electricity theft in south africa.

South africa is said to be losing approximately r20 billion yearly due to electricity theft three quarters of which is reported to be losses suffered by municipalities. Outlook 2015 study by the northeast group llc the world loses us 89 3 billion annually to electricity theft. In south africa electricity theft is on a steady incline due to the high rate of unemployment and poverty resulting in state owned power utility eskom losing billions every year. As with other forms of electricity theft this happens in communities all over south africa examples of meter tampering are shown in the images below.

According to the annual emerging markets smart grid. Meter tampering photo by eskom meter. What to do when electricity theft is discovered. There are five primary objectives in this research.

Electricity theft and revenue collection. To explore and to describe the extent and the impact of copper cable theft. This dissertation focuses on the phenomenon of copper cable theft within the gauteng province of south africa. Report the matter to the south african police services if there is an illegal connection.

Eskom is losing billions each year to this crime and many people are getting electrocuted because of unsafe wires in areas where this theft. As with other forms of electricity theft this happens in communities all over south africa examples of meter tampering are shown in the images below. South africa s towns cities and rural areas. Electricity theft causes overloading of the network which finally leads to power cuts.

This leads to things like loss of productivity and traffic jams. Meter tampering photo by eskom meter. The local publication states that bypassing of electric meters and consumers mainly in informal settlements illegally connecting themselves to. According to the ridge times south africa is facing six forms of electricity theft resulting in an average loss of up to r20 billion 1 5 billion per annum.

Poor people are usually blamed for electricity theft but shocking findings show that businesses and agriculture are also involved in this crime. Electricity theft is a global issue affecting a lot of countries around the world. An internal audit of the consumption by a particular unit in a complex by checking meters as compared to the metered consumption for that unit could also reveal that electricity theft is taking place. The highest losses were in india 16 2 billion.