As the Capital grapples with outages caused by shortage of power, distribution company BRPL has launched a massive drive against pilferage in South Delhi and West Delhi. Over the next two and a half months it will clamp down on illegal tapping of power and initiate action against those who do not pay for what they use.
The anti-power theft drive which was launched recently has already unearthed over 2,000 kW of power theft and cases have been booked against 450 people in 26 areas.
“It is one of the biggest crack-downs on power-theft in recent times. For increased effectiveness of the drive and to unearth power theft of various types, the raids are being carried out literally 24x7 - even during late-night and early morning hours. A total of over 100 areas are being targeted across South and West Delhi,” said a company spokesperson.
BSES teams are being assisted by Delhi Police personnel for carrying out the raids.
“On January 6, when Delhi’s temperature plummeted to its lowest ever of 1.9degrees Celsius, BRPL teams, along with Delhi Police personnel, undertook multiple simultaneous raids at several places, starting at 5-30 a.m. They booked 30 cases and unearthed a power theft load of nearly 150 kW,” said the spokesperson.
“To ensure accuracy, the discom is relying heavily on modern analytics and technology. For this purpose, energy input data from the over 6,000 Distribution Transformers (DT) is being collated and analysed by a centralised team and power theft locations narrowed down significantly,” the spokesperson said.
Referring to the power theft and the consequent drive, BRPL CEO Gopal Saxena said: “It is seen that with the unusually cold weather, there is a sharp and sudden increase in energy theft. This, at places leads to severe over-loading of the distribution system, including the transformers and feeders, resulting in tripping and is also a potential safety hazard. This dangerous overloading of the distribution system can also damage the distribution equipment. These mass raids will also assist in checking this menace”.
According to a BSES, since July 2002, BRPL has booked over 1.32 lakh cases and unearthed a power theft load of over 7.65 lakh kW
