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Following steps have been taken by the Government of India to control the theft of power:
- There are specific provisions in the Electricity Act 2003 (Section 126 and Sections 135 to 140) relating to theft and unauthorized use of electricity, including stringent penal provisions and speedy trial for such offences by Special Courts (Part XV of the Electricity Act 2003);
- Under RDSS, there is a provision for providing financial assistance to the eligible DISCOMs for installation of pre-paid smart meters for 25 crore consumers and system metering with communication features by March 2025. Under the scheme, advanced ICT like Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML) would be leveraged to analyse data generated through smart meters to detect the theft cases and to prepare actionable MIS from system generated energy accounting reports so as to enable the DISCOMs to take informed decisions on power theft along with loss reduction.
- Also under the scheme, financial assistance is being provided to the eligible Discoms for upgradation of distribution infrastructure including measures for reduction of losses and theft by use of ABC cable/UG cable/HVDS etc. This will facilitate to reduce the losses of distribution utilities including theft of electricity.
- As per Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020, the distribution licensee shall arrange to display on its website feeder wise outage data, efforts made for minimizing outages, prevention of theft or unauthorized use of electricity or tampering, distress or damage to electrical plant, electric lines or meter and results obtained during the year.
- Tariff Policy 2016 envisages that in order to reduce theft of power, the distribution companies should have enabling feature like distribution SCADA with distribution management system and energy audit functions.
This information was given by Shri R.K Singh Union Minister for Power and MNRE in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
