Electricity theft is a major cause of revenue loss and circular debt in the case of Pakistan. Power theft alone costs hundreds of millions of dollars every year to electricity distribution companies in Pakistan. It implies that the circular debt issue is mainly a result of low recovery rate from electricity consumers and illegal use of electricity. This has severe implications for the overall national economy on two major fronts. First, overall GDP growth in the economy directly depends on a strong and continuous power supply in a country. Second, lack of using multiple energy resources affects the capacity of electricity generation to meet the exact demand of electricity.
It is obvious that electricity crisis cannot be handled without combating rampant electricity theft in the country. The government needs to understand that bill collection and cracking down on illegal power connections would help ease power crisis to a large extent.
Under the new law, power theft has been declared a serious crime, trial of which shall be conducted in Electricity Utility Court. Despite the punishment, power thieves are still rampant in the country and continue to be found involved in stealing electricity at large. Certain segments of our society do not even consider theft of electricity let alone immoral. People steal electricity by hooking up a wire to overhead electricity cables, siphoning of off power without paying for it because this electricity is not recorded on electric meter.
It is not as though there is no model for how to combat electricity theft in Pakistan. A solution has been initiated in Karachi where K-Electric has installed anti-theft cables, called as aerial bundle cable in areas that are either high loss or very high loss for the power company, the electricity usage in these areas are mostly acquired through illegal hook connections.
K-Electric has also been continuously striving to reduce line losses in distribution networks focusing residential and commercial consumers. For this purpose, the utility has implemented aerial bundled cables installation in areas including Lines Area, Defence, Garden, North Nazimabad, Korangi, Tipu Sultan, and Jauhar Al Shifa Feeder, Cattle Colony, Shah Faisal, North Karachi and Surjani.
Compared to conventional bare conductor overhead systems, ABC's theft deterrent characteristics promise to be cheaper, safer, more reliable alternative. With the insulation of the cables, it also promotes a reduction in safety hazards in low tension network.
ABC makes it impossible to apply hook connections while also reduces line losses, hence minimising load-shedding and ensures proper supply of power which also saves electrical equipment. There have been case studies from Latin America where the government privatised their utilities, which helped bring in reforms. Focus was shifted to increasing efficiency and reducing line losses, which eventually resulted in improved customer relations. Similarly, ABC helps in the reduction of losses and eventually the ratio of outages significantly goes down as the facility for placement of hook connections become zero. With the subsequent conversion, these PMTs/feeders have been shifted to a lower loss category hence enhancing the overall reliability of power supply.
Moreover, the ABC project causes a reduction in consumer complaints, and as reported in some areas complaints have gone down by up to 90 percent with improved voltage profile and lesser faults. During the last Fiscal year FY 15-16 alone, KE has managed to convert 453 PMTs raising the total count to 751 PMTs ABC Cables, benefiting around 112,650 KE consumers. It is due to these initiatives Karachi has become the only city in Pakistan where more than 60 percent of the city and the entire industrial sector is exempted from load-shedding.
Along with KE, other utilities like Pesco have replaced old wire with anti-theft cables to discourage electricity theft. Power theft is no more a small offence and keeping in view the prolonged load-shedding across the city, K-Electric is trying to devise novel approaches to the increasing problem of energy crisis faced by our nation. With reduced electricity theft, it will ensure efficient end use of electricity environmental advantages as less energy will be required to generate to meet electricity demand. The task is far from impossible but can only be accomplished if the will exists.
(The writer is a freelancer, an avid reader and a blogger; she has worked as a field reporter for a brief period and has written articles as a freelancer for different publications)