Electricity theft is the illegal practice of stealing electric power. The global cost of electricity theft was estimated at $89.3 billion every year.
Over the years, in Nigeria thieves have carefully selected ways of stealing power; direct hooking from line, bypassing the energy metre, injecting foreign elements in the energy metre, physical obstruction, ESD attack on electronic metre etcetera.
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The implications of these newfound ways are as dangerous to the economy as poison is to our body system. The implications of electricity theft affect quality of supply, increase load on the generating station, and affect tariffs imposed on genuine customers.
One of the most recognised effects of electricity theft is how it affects the quality of power supply. The power frequency is tempered with when any of the aforementioned means is used in stealing power because the body responsible with the power magnitude is not involved in its safe trip to the customers home. Electricity theft has come a long way in destroying not just the power quality but also the precious properties of genuine customers and in some cases their lives.
Another strong and undesirable effect is that it increases load on the generating station. Electricity theft is caused by ignorant people and the effects are not limited to only the safety people but also the generating station. Power is not supplied in a nonspecific magnitude to any location. Serious calculations and estimations are done to get the right amount of frequency of a current location and its delivering agent can hold. So when people vandalise and steal this power through direct hooking, decrease in the magnitude supplied and time it is supposed to last is not a new thing. It deteriorates every light power holds
Finally, as much as we need water we also need electricity. There is no science to why this is so but finding ourselves among the citizens of the 21st century leaves you with no choice but to be in need of a 24-hour supply of electricity. The implications of electricity theft are many but the most important and most undeniable one is the excess tariff imposed on genuine customers. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers feels that for power to be 100 per cent authorised, the people must pay for the damages they’ve caused and in 9 of 10 cases the sufferers are not the culprits.
The Electricity regulations council formulated the regulatory instrument in 2013 -Electricity Theft and other Related Offences Act. But this has had little or no effect on the rate of electricity theft and electricity vandalism in Nigeria; this is also one of the implications, since the people doing it are roaming free and people obeying are treated with no respect. If the government does not work round the clock towards this issue, time will come when everyone will be a thief of electricity and the little hands we’ve once surrendered to be cuffed will be the same hands that will destroy our light.
Abdulrazaq Salihu can be reached via [email protected]>
