Enemalta employees suspended over 1,000 tampered smart meters

1,000 smart meters were found to have been tampered with, resulting in rampant electricity theft Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi revealed this evening.

A highly sophisticated system installed in the smart meters enabled the meters to record less energy units than what was actually being consumed. The police is carrying out its investigations as Enemalta provided a clear audit trail confirming its suspicions.

Moreover, 95% of tests carried out on suspicious smart meters - mostly installed in private residences and SMEs such as grocers, butcher shops and other shops - proved that the smart meters had been tampered with.

It is believed the racket kicked off in November and December 2011, "exploding" in 2012. According to Enemalta CEO Frederick Azzopardi, it takes between three to six months for the theft to be detected.

"We suspect it is an inside job and three Enemalta employees have been suspended. I am very angry at what's happening, especially since the theft saw the involvement of the corporation's employees," the energy minister said.

On a yearly basis, Enemalta registers 10% non-technical losses where each one percent costs around €1 million. Theft of electricity contributes to a high percentage of these losses.

Although there are different ways by which electricity can be stolen, a task force set up within Enemalta detected a highly sophisticated system used to tamper with the smart meters.

The suspicious smart meters were sent to Italian energy corporation Enel, the same corporation that provided the smart meters. Initially, Enel found nothing wrong with the equipment but further tests resulted in the discovery of a system that recorded fewer units than actually consumed.

"The Italians themselves were highly impressed by the software, admitting they had never seen anything like that installed in these smart meters," Mizzi said.

In total, there around 200,000 smart meters installed and it is certain that there are much more than these 1,000 accounts stealing electricity. Different methods are applied and it requires Enemalta officials to personally check out every smart meter installed.

It turns out that whoever did the "expert" job managed to tamper with the smart meters without breaking them. According to Enemalta officials, even the corporation's own officials could not manage to force open the meters without breaking them.

"I am personally very angry at this and I am issuing a serious warning that abuse and theft will not be tolerated. This matter does not only affect the corporation in terms of revenue but also taxpayers and the honest consumers," Mizzi said.

The energy minister warned that those who are stealing electricity will be caught, "if not today, tomorrow".

"We are very serious in our commitment to fight theft and we will not rest until this racket stops. All our findings have been passed on to the police so it can proceed with its criminal investigation," he said, adding that the previous administration failed to carry a crackdown on the thefts despite the repeated warnings it received.

In 2012, Enemalta had reassured consumers that the system provided Enemalta and ARMS with data that can be used to identify attempts, whether successful or not, of tampering of the meters and the software tools to carry out such analysis.

The energy minister added that Enemalta will also seek to retrieve back what it lost from the thefts, based on a legal notice which spells out the procedure and formula.

Different consumers have found different ways to tamper with the smart meter, the easiest reportedly is the three-phase. At the start of the smart meter rollout, it was reported that a special magnet, sold for between €300 and €500, controls the rate of consumption. The single-phase meter - of the sort that were caught in the crackdown - was supposedly more complicated to tamper with.