which is equivalent to an average of more than 175 daily cases or more than seven per hour, with an electricity consumption equivalent to that of almost 117,000 homes, according to the energy this Thursday in a statement. The manipulation of electrical facilities to commit fraud is a problem increasing in recent years that harms all consumers and causes risks to citizen security recently, highlights the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC).
“Behind the electrical fraud there is a fire that can affect not only the one that performs the manipulation of the facilities, but to the neighbors around them,” says the energy in the statement. Endesa states that “very serious events that have caused injuries and even deaths from the alteration of electrical installations for the theft of electricity” have been recorded in recent years. José Manuel Revuelta, president of Endesa Networks, warns: “The fraud kills. Risk of happening incidents is very high. ”
Revuelta recalls that this phenomenon also implies “an economic cost of more than 2,000 million euros”, an expense that “we pay among all in invoices” and that “also has pernicious effects on the quality of electricity supply.”
Marijuana plantations in the focus
The main cause inside floors, houses or buildings, known as plantations indoorwhich use electrical installations illegally hooked to the network with large consumptions 24 hours a day and can cause infrastructure damage.
The data also indicates that Spain monopolizes 73% of all the seizures of marijuana plants registered in the European Union (EU), of which a good part are grown in these facilities indoor. Each of these greenhouses under ceiling demands a power that is equivalent to the consumption of about 80 homes of about 100 square meters, as Endesa recalls. Endesa pointed out in 2023 that annual electrical expenditure to feed marijuana plantations fraudulently
Between January and June six plantations have been dismantled indoor a day in the distribution areas of Endesa. The volume of energy recovered in these fraud amounts to 111 million kWh, the equivalent to the consumption of more than 31,700 homes.
AI as ally against fraud
Apart from collaboration with security forces, which energy considers “key in the fight against fraud” Endesa indicates that it uses models of machine learning y deep learning (Automatic learning and deep learning in Spanish) To improve the detection of energy theft. The company starts from the history of inspections carried out among the 12 million supply points, consumption patterns, information on measurement equipment and even weather information to estimate with May accuracy the probability of fraud.
The use of AI – combined with the information provided by innovations such as advanced supervision equipment that is installed in the distribution network – helps to delimit the origin of fraud within a supply group. Once in the field, exist Tools such as amperimetric tweezers or videoscopes, which allow technicians to detect and show fraud.
Mild crime in Spain
Endesa remembers that Spain is the only country in its environment that does not contemplate “sorrows of deprivation of liberty for the crime of electric fraud”, unlike France, Portugal, Italy or Germany.
Within the Spanish legal framework, it establishes that the electric fluid fraud is sanctioned with fine of three to twelve months, and if the fraud amount does not exceed 400 euros, the fine is one to three months. This makes it a slight crime that “does not include aggravating and is not taken into account for recidivism, regardless of whether you are used to feed mass cannabis plantations or is related to fire of serious consequences,” the company says.
Even so, Revuelta invites citizens to denounce these cases: “Even anonymously, either before the police or through the company’s channels,” he says.
