'Over 7,500 cases of electricity theft registered this year’

AMMAN — The Jordanian Electric Power Co. Ltd. (JEPCO) has registered a total of 7,568 cases of electricity theft during the first eight months of this year, according to Hassan Abdullah, JEPCO's strategic asset manager.

He expected unregistered cases to be double that figure, as inspection teams do not examine all electricity gauges in the company's area of operations, which covers the central governorates of Amman, Zarqa, Madaba as well as a majority of Balqa. 

"Inspection campaigns in 2013 targeted 200,000 electricity meters out of 1.2 million gauges in these governorates, registering 11,397 cases of theft," he said, comparing the number to 11,100 in 2012.

Perpetrators steal electricity by making illegal connections on power cables.

The company tries to recover estimated electricity tariffs and additional costs for damage from violators, Abdullah said.  

He noted that violence against on-duty JEPCO employees is another challenge that the company seeks to overcome in coordination with the Energy and Mineral Resources Commission (EMRC).

"The EMRC is scheduled to sign an agreement with the Public Security and Gendarmerie departments under which security personnel will accompany JEPCO employees in order to protect them," he said.

Abdullah cited three incidents that involved physical attacks on
JEPCO staff since the beginning of this year.