Drones used in Lucknow to check power thefts on large scale

Drones are now being used by the Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA) to check power theft through air surveillance.

This is the first time that drones are being used to identify illegal power connections.

According to Sanjay Jain, chief engineer, LESA Cis-Gomti, more than 200 power thieves with photo evidence have been caught through the use of drones in the past one month.

The official added, "In some areas of the city where our staff faced some resistance due to narrow lanes, we decided to use drones to catch power thieves. During the last one month, we have caught more than 200 people at six places. These residents used to fix a 'katia' to the power line at night and take it off before 4 a.m. Through drones, we secured the footage of people fixing the katia connections and taking it off in the morning hours. When we raided these houses to cut off their connections, we had hard evidence."

He further said, "Presently, we have hired a few drones to catch power thieves but if this project is successful, then, we will purchase a few more drones not only for catching thieves but also for patrolling. We can also use it to locate faults at various places. The use of technology will only increase the efficiency of LESA."

The control rooms of the sub-stations, after constant monitoring, found that the power load used to increase after 11 p.m. in some areas. There are 150 sub-stations in the state capital. These substations supply power through 2000 feeders. Out of these, 200 feeders record more cases of power theft, said chief engineer Sanjay Jain.

Due to constant checking drives during the day time, people started using the katia during night hours -- primarily between 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Due to this, the load on sub-stations used to increase rapidly.

For example, the load on sub-station of New Campus on Sitapur road used to hover around 107 amperes during the day time but would jump to 140 amperes during the night.

Similarly, in Azad Nagar substation under Amberganj area, the load used to remain at 90 amperes during the day but would jump to 140 amperes during the night.

In Gaughat substation, the load used to remain around 52 amperes during the day but during the nights, it would go up to 100 amperes, clearly indicating power theft.

The LESA team was surprised when it caught power theft in every house of Muftiganj's Jehra Colony in May.

Similar was the case in Masalchi Tola. About 1,800 consumers are supplied from Kadam Rasool feeder of Ahibaranpur sub-station of Daliganj section. LESA does not get the revenue of about 63 per cent of the total electricity supplied.

The electricity supplied here is stolen on a large scale. At the same time, there are many people who do not pay the bills at all. In the last three months, 250 cases of power theft have been registered in this area alone.

(With inputs from IANS)