In 2015, employees of Central Production Department of Orenburgenergo, a branch of IDGC of Volga, PJSC (a member of Rosseti Group of Companies) issued 485 reports on illegal power consumption.
Estimated losses amounted to about 3 GWh. Methods of electricity theft are well-known to specialists, and include illegal hook-ups and connections to transmission lines or cable boxes, or tampering with electricity meters. After officially reporting electricity theft, specialists eliminate the illegal connection in question.
Power engineers remind that illegal connections degrade reliability and quality of supplied power, and cause overloads resulting in emergency shutoffs and damage of electrical appliances across neighboring households. Besides, illegal connections to electrical networks and unaccounted electricity consumption are offences that could prove costly.
 “According to article 7.19 of the RF Administrative Offence Code, unauthorized connection to networks and unauthorized (unaccounted) use of electricity result in administrative charges,” comments Tatiana Cherkova, Deputy Director of the Legal Department of Orenburgenergo, a branch of IDGC of Volga, PJSC. “From January 01, 2016, the law provides even higher charges – from 10 to 15 thousand rubles in case of individuals, and from 100 to 200 thousand rubles – in case of legal entities”.