Eesti Energia is urging its customers to alert it, either by e-mail or by telephone, regarding the suspicious consumption and possible theft of electricity. Each year, Eesti Energia discovers around EEK 9 million worth of illegal electricity consumption. In detecting such illegal consumption, Eesti Energia is being assisted by vigilant people and companies. In order to continue receiving such information, Eesti Energia has created an e-mail address [email protected] and a 24h hotline at 7 168 168. “In most cases, customers who have assisted us have detected illegal consumption near their homes or place of work, outside working hours, late in the evening or at night. To facilitate the reporting of such information, we have created a new e-mail address and telephone hotline service,” said Kaido-Erkki Must, Eesti Energia Service controlling sector head. Eesti Energia guarantees the anonymity of informers and security of the provided information. In the interests of customer security and good customer relations, Eesti Energia carries out regular inspections at points of consumption, especially at sites where it has detected irregularities in the consumption of electricity. These inspections determine whether the irregularities in consumption have been caused by the technical fault of a device, a change in the customer’s consumption habits, or because of the illegal consumption of electricity. Unauthorised consumption of electricity is a problem not only for the energy company, but also for all residents of Estonia. “The electricity that is not paid for by a few clients is paid for indirectly by all other consumers of electricity. Moreover, unauthorised consumption causes distortions in power lines and degradation in the quality of supply for the neighbours of the unauthorized consumer,” said Kaido-Erkki Must. When illegal consumption of electricity is discovered, Eesti Energia draws up a report and presents a corresponding invoice to the customer. Under the laws applicable in Estonia, the punishment for the theft of electricity is either a fine or detention. In order to ensure that the consumption of electricity always occurs in an honest and safe manner, Eesti Energia has made several developments on its own. It has procured necessary technical equipment and solutions, and changed work procedures. In addition, it has set up a special unit of specialists, who focus on the detection of unauthorized consumption, and has also developed a special IT solution for analysing riskier locations of consumption. Iveri Marukashvili
Eesti Energia Communications Specialist
Tel.: +372 71 51 218
GSM.: + 372 53 411 813
E-mail: [email protected]