this is just not right

[LCHIEN]

India's power theft problems:
Look at these pics on Google images of India's power distribution.
https://www.google.com/search?q=imag...Q&ved=0CCkQ7Ak

Why power theft in India is a complex problem
World’s Greatest Power Thieves Keep 400 Million Indians in Dark

people regularly go out and throw hooks with wires attached over the power lines strung through their neighborhood, to steal power. Its estimated that 1/3 of India's power generation is lost to theft.

[capncarl]

They could put a stop to it with a simple wiring change. In known theft areas they could move the illegal wiring to higher voltage wiring, say 10000 volts and smoke the illegals. I suppose that a low voltage system invites theft, kinda like our earlier cable tv systems here did.

[phrog]

Shocking.

Sikander earns $2 a day on the street cleaning people's ears. That's a new one on me. Wonder what a good ear-scrub would cost in this country?

[radhak]

A direct indictment of India's inequality between the haves and have-nots.

Electric power is India's biggest infrastructural challenge, even more so than water, because shortage of power causes water scarcity many a times. It's incredible that such open theft is not addressed despite agencies whose sole role is to catch such thieves! (In case anybody is puzzled by that, one word - corruption).

After decades of hand-wringing, there's finally a general consensus that the only way to handle this is to hand over this whole sector to private industry. Of course, the fear is that the poor will be left bereft of power (because they can't buy power, and they will not be allowed to steal it), and will vote the government out, so there's no political will behind that consensus.

In most Indian cities, power authorities publish a calendar of "load shedding". This is the number of hours a day electricity would be cut-off at the supply point. This would be staggered across localities, but 3 to 6 hours of no electric each day is not unusual. Just because it's announced before-hand makes it no less a problem. Imagine the impact on refrigerators and the food within. To counter this, moderately rich households buy uninterrupted-power-supply's (broadly called "inverters" in the country) that charge when electricity is available, and then power smaller items like lamps and ceiling fans when electricity is cut off (even richer homes are equipped with personal generators). This causes a bigger load on the supply, again causing bigger problems for the poor. Vicious cycle.

Cap, I'm sure you are joking - nobody wants to pass a death-sentence for utility theft, particularly when the reason of that theft is abject poverty. Those articles (and that documentary mentioned) do a good job listing the desperation that drives these thefts; the money saved (or earned, by doing this on behalf of wealthier but unscrupulous 'clients') is enough for them to ignore the dangers. Many already die, regularly, in this pursuit.

Phrog, I wouldn't be surprised if that's an overstatement of what he earns. Poverty there, is absolute, vs the US where death due to starvation is not heard of. People do menial jobs there that would not show up on any "potential careers" list anywhere else. Eg: a rag-picker is a person going around the streets picking up even the most tiny stray piece of trash - paper, cloth, plastic, and sell them to recycling units for mere pennies. And these are generally kids of any age, but also some adults. Would give you the creeps.

[capncarl]

Allow me to expand on my solution! After the illegal connections are discovered the voltage is upped in the power thieves house just enough to smoke is tv, refrigerator and computer that he is probably using for his help desk job to the US.
Don't you just love it when we can solve 2 problems with one action?

[tfischer]

Allow me to expand on my solution! After the illegal connections are discovered the voltage is upped in the power thieves house just enough to smoke is tv, refrigerator and computer that he is probably using for his help desk job to the US.
Don't you just love it when we can solve 2 problems with one action?

It's something they could publicize in advance... of course they'd also have to put transformers on all the 'legal' connections first.

But since the real problem sees to be corruption and the lack of a real political solution, not a technical solution, the problem is going to have to be solved by politicians and sociologists, not engineers.

[LCHIEN]

Allow me to expand on my solution! After the illegal connections are discovered the voltage is upped in the power thieves house just enough to smoke is tv, refrigerator and computer that he is probably using for his help desk job to the US.
Don't you just love it when we can solve 2 problems with one action?

Its not that easy, the illegal connections are thrown on top of legal connections. You'll blow out the legal users, too.

[vaking]

But since the real problem sees to be corruption and the lack of a real political solution, not a technical solution, the problem is going to have to be solved by politicians and sociologists, not engineers.

You hit the nail on the head. Illegal consumers are poor people, legal consumers are richer and bigger. 1/3 of all power is stolen by small consumers - it means at least 50% of Indian population use power illegally. Stop power theft and you will cut off power for half the country population. This is a political suicide for the government. It means that the government, which is technically responsible for solving this problem, does not really want it solved. They would rather talk about it then do. Most countries have such problems they don't really want solved. This is not a technical problem at all.

On a small technical note - pictures indicate India is using regular household voltage on long distance transmission lines. Besides theft - this must be causing high transmission losses (heat generated in wires). Increase voltage 10 times, for the same amount of power you will reduce current 10 times and transmission loss 100 times. Transformers that you need for it will pay for themselves in no time at all. And you will also stop theft in long distance lines as a side benefit. If India is using low voltage on long distance lines - it must be deliberate to facilitate the theft.

[radhak]

If India is using low voltage on long distance lines - it must be deliberate to facilitate the theft.

Well, not exactly to facilitate theft, though that's what it ends up doing. Imagine the social fall out if the number of deaths increases by electrocution on the street increases 100 fold. There is no practical way of stopping people from stealing what they need desperately and is not under active lock/key; the threat of death seems to be not enough.

The only solution is to create and provide cheap energy, so that the temptation to steal is gone. Not an expert in that area, so I can only say - hopefully that day will come.

[LCHIEN]

if you read the articles there are rich thieves as well. There's also a lot of corruption as evidenced by increase in thefts just before every election as the incumbents press to reduce enforcement in an attempt to get votes and stay in power. I doubt they can transmit low voltage but the local low voltage lines within the crowded town are easy targets for those who just throw a pair of hooks over two uninsulated lines and run the cables attached to the hooks through a window.You clear them out today and they're back tomorrow.
A lot of old, old meters that are easily defeated... no smart meters with anti-tamper because they won't invest in the infrasructure. THat's part of the problem, without investing in infrastructure the thefts go up, no income to the power co leads to poor service and in turn everyone thinks they shouldn't pay for bad service so the rich and poor alike steal. Another factor the govt tries to encourage irrigation for farmers so they gave them unmetered power to run the pumps... which they overuse... sending power connections to their relatives and neighbors who run nearby businesses etc using way more than intended.
Ultimately its the classic prisoners' dilemma. If everyone cooperates then everyone benefits. But if a few cheat then they get way ahead and others suffer. But when there's mass cheating, everyone gets some benefits and but they also get a lot of grief and suffering as they try to outdo each other.

[capncarl]

It sounds like they copied our welfare sys and implemented it to their power sys!
It encourages those that can pay for the services to steal them. Given the opportunity even some that can afford for free some will steal it. It is not the sys that is corrupt it is the users.