HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Central Power Distribution Company Limited (APCPDCL) is heaving a sigh of relief with power pilferage, a nightmare for the discom for several years now, being reduced to a great extent in South Zone of the city.

With the pilferage eating heavily into the discom's coffers, it had set out two years ago to shift individual electricity meters from within buildings to pole-mounted boxes on nearby electricity poles. The CPDCL has so far shifted more than 70,000 meters into 12,757 pole-mounted boxes.

Following the innovative measure, energy loss has reduced considerably. The loss came down from 52.12 per cent to 21.73 per cent in New Nagulbanda, 52.41 per cent to 29.71 per cent in Quadri Chaman Dargah area, 41.47 per cent to 17 per cent in Moosa Bowli, 50.46 per cent to 35.3 per cent in Shamsher Gunj and 51.16 per cent to 35.97 per cent in Shalibanda localities.

There are approximately four lakh connections in South Zone and the work to shift all of them into pole-mounted boxes is going on. According to a CPDCL official, old city area is plagued with this problem 50 times more than other localities.

Preventing tampering

The discom is placing terminal covers on all the meters that are inside buildings to prevent tampering and to keep a check on power loss. As 95 per cent of the work is already complete in the twin cities, the rest is likely to be completed by September 30.

Replacing old meters with high-efficiency meters is another measure being undertaken to curb pilferage.

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