After 30 years of using new technologies to charge for electricity consumption, EDM is recording a downward trend in electricity theft.
Thirty years after the introduction of the Credelec project, which allows electricity to be paid for before it is consumed, the results are considered highly encouraging. Mozambique Electricity (EDM) says billing losses have fallen by two percentage points, highlighting the impact of new technologies in terms of strategic adjustments to the economic returns generated.
“There is a downward trend in electricity theft and greater financial gains, which creates room for more public investment,” says Eduardo Ali Pinto, the institution’s commercial director.
The same source notes that, alongside the substantial reduction in fraud rates, so-called administrative losses have also fallen sharply, as the purchase of electricity through advance payment, enabled by new consumption-monitoring technologies, has put a stop to all attempts at corruption.
The Credelec project was launched in 1995 and consists of selling electricity on a prepaid basis through a metering and operating technology linked to a commercialisation process considered reliable for customers and profitable for the service provider.
Available data show that, in the first few years of the Credelec project’s operation, it was possible to collect around one billion meticais per month, of which 100 million meticais represented the recovery of accumulated debts. EDM suspends electricity supply to consumers involved in fraud schemes and applies charges for past consumption before the contract is regularised.
Source: Domingo
