PLN Loses Rp10 Billion due to Electricity Theft

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – State electricity company PLN president director  stated the company suffered loses around Rp10 billion in a year due to the electricity theft. “Please share that theft is a criminal act,” he said in the Parliament complex, Tuesday, April 24.

He revealed the theft was done by industries and households in every region in Indonesia.

To prevent further loses, Sofian asserted, the company will install the smart meter to monitor the customers’ electricity usage. “It’s an online real-time [monitoring],” he added.

He mentioned the loses was amounted to 3 percent of PLN revenue of Rp300 billion. “They [illegally] used 10,000 until 15,000 watt [electricity].

The matter was one of many efficient topics discussed in a meeting with energy commission of the House of the Representative (DPR) in a bid to not increase the tariff of electricity until 2019. Thus PLN is struggling to switch the electric meter to the smart meter one despite the cost considerably high.[Courtesy:TEMPO.CO]