How much power can I steal?

M

Milano

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As an academic exercise, is there any limit in quantity to the amount of power that an illegal residential or business user can steal? Is it possible to operate a small to medium factory? A mine? What is the real world limitation and what determines the limiting factors? Is it potentially possible to re-sell stolen electricity? What methods are available to locate electricity thieves? Is it easier to steal electricity in an area of low electricity theft or an area of high electricity theft, or equal ease?

Is it possible for a sub station to only supply enough power daily to feed a particular number of kwh based on estimated daily anticipated paid usage, and then stop supplying power like a pre-paid meter? Are the limitations to instituting a sub-station quota technical, ethical or political?
 
Don't know how relevant it is today but see if you can find a copy of Arthur Hailey's "Overload" about a mythical Californian power utility and their problems in the 70's.
 
I think quite a lot can be stolen , all depends on the infrastructure that you have access to .
Like my place there is a terminal box outside that feeds about 10 houses ,
If i dug a trench and terminated another cable in there and fed it in to my place no one would know , the trick would be to make it look like it is feeding up or down the road and pour concrete over the cable so by the time they have dug up the concrete and broken it there is nothing on the end .

:D
 
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Just move to or set up shop in Soweto and then you got powa for free for life.
 
..or the suburbs for that matter.
We had a City Power employee/contractor asking us if we wanted an illegal connection a couple of years ago. Only R400.
 
FNfal said:
I think quite a lot can be stolen , all depends on the infrastructure that you have access to .
Like my place there is a terminal box outside that feeds about 10 houses ,
If i dug a trench and terminated another cable in there and fed it in to my place no one would know , the trick would be to make it look like it is feeding up or down the road and pour concrete over the cable so by the time they have dug up the concrete and broken it there is nothing on the end .

:D
Click to expand...

Ah. I know of a case where someone realized his neighbor was stealing electricity from him, disconnected the cable from the board, made sure it was not his own, and 'accidentally' wired it to the terminals of his welder. :twisted:
I'd do the same if I had that suspicion.
 
Yes - there's an awful lot of it that goes on. Sometimes from incompetence (wiring the nearest wire) rather than malice...

I think in general if it's within 5-10% of the total, they wouldn't even recognise there's a problem.

I'm not sure anyone at Eskom is doing the calculation to check that the amount of power they bill for equals the amount consumed at each sub-station say; but they probably could do that...

But ultimately, as others have said, finding the problem is only 10% of getting to the solution.
 
richjdavies said:
I'm not sure anyone at Eskom is doing the calculation to check that the amount of power they bill for equals the amount consumed at each sub-station say; but they probably could do that...
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Pretty sure doing such a calc would result in instant dismissal. Highlighting crime, corruption and theft is - I'm told - not appreciated by cadre deployees.
 
Compton_effect said:
Ah. I know of a case where someone realized his neighbor was stealing electricity from him, disconnected the cable from the board, made sure it was not his own, and 'accidentally' wired it to the terminals of his welder. :twisted:
I'd do the same if I had that suspicion.
Click to expand...

How did it turn out?
 
You pay less in a township!

Get your free kWhs when relocating to a township and voting ANC. You pay less, yeah yeah yeah in a township!
 
Wasabee! said:
You pay less in a township!

Get your free kWhs when relocating to a township and voting ANC. You pay less, yeah yeah yeah in a township!
Click to expand...
As the real estate agent said : it's all about location location location
 
Heard about one undetectable way to get free juice from Eskom

Under powerlines bury a whole bunch of cables, and the magnetic feild from the powerlines will transmit into the cables underneath

Heard drug dealers in Columbia do this to keep their heroin/cocaine plants working properly

Apparently length is the issue, need to shadow powerlines for 10km or so for it to work...
 
eg2505 said:
Heard about one undetectable way to get free juice from Eskom

Under powerlines bury a whole bunch of cables, and the magnetic feild from the powerlines will transmit into the cables underneath

Heard drug dealers in Columbia do this to keep their heroin/cocaine plants working properly

Apparently length is the issue, need to shadow powerlines for 10km or so for it to work...
Click to expand...

Google for "stealing power through induction". It is not undetectable. In fact this method is very easy to detect and it is something that Eskom would care about since it looks like a line fault.

Don't need the 10km just need to wind some coils.
 
biena said:
Google for "stealing power through induction". It is not undetectable. In fact this method is very easy to detect and it is something that Eskom would care about since it looks like a line fault.

Don't need the 10km just need to wind some coils.
Click to expand...

So it is real then?

Mythbusters tried it and it didn't work, always wanted to know why?
 
eg2505 said:
So it is real then?

Mythbusters tried it and it didn't work, always wanted to know why?
Click to expand...

It is real. Induction is how wireless charging works.
http://www.industrytap.com/electromagnetic-harvesters-free-lunch-or-theft/1805
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=9291

Take a neon tube and go stand under a power line, tube lights up :)

Mythbusters is entertaining, don't think that you should trust them. Some of their experiments is total BS.
Think this youtube is where it is shown what they did wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNf8KtWeW1s
 
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