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Jun 29, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The government is bailing out Guyana Power and Light to the tune of billions of dollars each year. This is in order to ensure that tariffs are not increased.
In the meantime, electricity theft is rampant. Some estimates place the theft of electricity as high as one third of total power generation. Other estimates say that this, when combined with technical losses can run as high as fifty per cent.
In effect what it means is that between 33 per cent and 50 per cent of the total electricity generated is non-revenue earning. It is either lost due to technical deficiencies or due to the stealing of electricity.
However, since the government is subsidizing the cost of electricity, it means that if these losses can be cut then tariffs could plunge by as much as one-third. Thus if your electricity bill is around $18,000 per month, you should really be paying $12,000 had there been no illegal connections.
The Guyana Power and Light has been trying to reduce electricity theft but it seems as if the smarter they get, the wiser becomes the population. All manner of illegal connections are established. It is also believed that many workers of the power company are in league with customers in a conspiracy to steal electricity.
The average consumer cannot slow down a meter; the average consumer cannot create a bypass from a meter; the average consumer cannot connect a line to the pole to steal current. These things have to be done by persons who are either part of the power company, were part of the power company or in the case of those connecting illegal lines, with some knowledge of how to make these connections. Thus, unless corruption is rooted out in the GPL, the power utility will always face an uphill battle to control the situation.
In the meantime, legitimate consumers are being saddled with high electricity costs and the treasury is being forced to bail out the GPL in the main because of power theft.
This is not good enough but unfortunately there is reluctance on the part of consumers to report theft taking place within their communities.
Unless we do away with this culture of turning a blind eye to electricity theft, the situation will not improve. Guyanese therefore have to be blamed for what is taking place because the theft of power is no secret but people simply refuse to report those who are stealing electricity.
The Guyana Power and Light has changed the laws to allow them to back bill those found stealing but by the time they find the persons stealing, the amount of theft that has taken place cannot be compensated for by any back billing.
It is interesting that most Guyanese were outraged when they discovered what the people of Linden were paying per kilowatt hour while they had to pay more. Many said it was not fair.
Well, it is also not fair for persons to be stealing electricity while legal users of electricity have to end up paying for the electricity stolen. This is exactly what happens. There is no free ride. Somebody has to pay because tariffs are calculated based on the total power generated and not on the total power used.
As such if your neighbour is stealing electricity, it is you who will end up paying because the GPL has to recover the total cost of generated power.
It is time therefore for persons to begin to report those who are stealing electricity. And the GPL should offer some financial incentives to the public for making such reports.
There are of course, persons who may be willing to give information but who are not sure about the confidentiality of the information.
As such, the GPL should establish a toll free number whereby persons can call an overseas operator and give their report to someone living overseas. The overseas receiver will then inform GPL as to which property they should check. They will not reveal any details as to who made the report.
In return, the person making the report should be paid 10 per cent of all the monies that are recovered due to back billing. In this way if one million dollars is recovered, the person giving the information will be guaranteed one hundred thousand dollars which will be channeled through the overseas operator.
Once persons begin to be rewarded for giving information, including information on GPL staff, the reports will flow and electricity theft will be eradicated.
GPL should seriously consider such a strategy since it would help the corporation but more importantly, it will help consumers to reduce what they pay for electricity.

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