My neighbor’s power bill
Ken Wilson, who has lived in the same apartment since 2006, said recently he oticed his Pacific Gas and Electric bill was going up, so he took steps to try to reduce his energy usage. He reached out to PG&E when his bill failed to go down. “I thought there was a leak or someone was stealing my electricity or the meter was faulty because something wasn’t right,” he told CBS Sacramento. A utility company employee came to examine Wilson’s meter and discovered the company had been charging him for the unit next door, instead of his own apartment. Wilson said the mix-up may have been happening for the entire 18 years that he has lived in the apartment. “We acknowledge an error occurred in this instance, and we are fully committed to rectifying the situation with the customer and make the customer happy.
Tampering with an electric meter or tapping into a power line to siphon off free electricity just seems like a bad idea. Yet stealing electricity is a way of life for some and even a business, an illegal one, for others. And the real victims are paying customers. “The real deal about tampering is not just about the money, it’s also about safety. If there’s a problem or mistake, it potentially could cause injury or death to our employees, first responders and the public.” In an average month, Oncor investigates 2,400 cases of suspected theft. Industry experts estimate that $6 billion of electricity is stolen each year in the U.S.
Oncor relies on its own “electric detectives” from Revenue Security. On a recent chilly morning, Joey Lynn, a Revenue Security Representative, is at work in his usual location – the backyard of someone he doesn’t know. Within minutes, Lynn examines the electric meter and finds what he’s looking for: evidence that electricity is being stolen, diverted or manipulated to lower the monthly bill. “The people who are doing it have been doing it their entire life or they are paying to have it done,” said Jonathan Nichols, Supervisor, Revenue Security. “They don’t ever think there’s anything wrong with it.” At his truck, Lynn uploads data from the meter to a laptop and photos he’s taken of the home and the tampering. The electrical supplier then has two days to notify the customer that evidence of tampering has been found, a requirement from the Texas Public Utility Commission.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a rundown shack or a million-dollar home,” he said, “we find tampering.” Most offenders are never prosecuted, but they can receive fairly hefty bills from their retail electric provider, said Chris Easdon, Supervisor, Tampering Review Team.
Easdon’s team looks at all the data. “We catch most people pretty fast,” he said. “We want to know who did it, when it happened and is it something we can bill.”
Electrifying Humor
I caught my son chewing on electrical cords.
So I had to ground him.
He’s doing better currently.
And conducting himself properly …
I can’t afford to pay for electricity anymore…
these are some dark times.
A professor asked his class “What is the difference between electricity and lightning?”
student replied, “We don’t have to pay for lightning.”
What we can do as a first line of defense against the impending Robot/AI war:
Stop paying the electric bill.
September 20th Birthdays
1996 – Sophia Linkletter, 1934 – Sophia Loren, 1996 – Sammi Henratty, 1993 – Taylor Parks
1917 – Red Auerbach, 1951 – Guy LaFleur, 1977 – John Bernthal, 1978 – Dante Hall