Power theft and unauthorised extensions of power lines continue unabated in the border region comprising Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts, compelling the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to replace the old meters with smart meters.
Neeraj Bagga
Amritsar, January 30
Power theft and unauthorised extensions of power lines continue unabated in the border region comprising Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts, compelling the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to replace the old meters with smart meters. The PSPCL has plans to install smart meters in lakhs in these border districts.
These unscrupulous activities causing losses worth crores to the PSPCL in power transmission have recording an upswing during the past two years. This was reflected in detection of power thefts and unauthorised extension of power lines by the PSPCL enforcement wing in the border region. The enforcement wing detected 7,055 cases of this nature in 2022 and the detection rose to 7,206 cases in 2023, indicating an increase of a little over 150 cases. it increased revenue from fines — from Rs 12.76 crore in 2022 to Rs 21.53 crore in 2023 — signalling an increase of Rs 8.77 crore. However, insiders in the department state that a large number of power theft cases still go unchecked and the department has been employing one measure after another to reduce the losses.
The situation compelled the Powercom to look for measures to plug the gaps like replacing the present set of meters with smart ones. Smart meters allow consumers to check the reading of units consumed on their mobile handsets, there is no chance for manual recording of wrong meter reading, delivery of paperless bills takes place on registered e-mail addresses and consumers can control power consumption by daily observing meter reading.
Satinder Sharma, PSPCL (Chief Engineer), said: “The Powercom holds awareness camps to educate people against power thefts and illegal drawing of power. He anticipated a similar positive response with the installation of smart meters.
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