HYDRO HIGH SAPS THE POWER

AUSTRALIAN power companies say they are losing $120 million a year through
electricity theft and blame the rise on the growing popularity of
hydroponic marijuana cultivation.

Backed by police reports and its own data, the industry's watchdog says
hydroponic marijuana crops, propagated indoors through a system of lights
and heat, were now the fastest-growing area of power-pinching in the
country. Australasian Utilities Revenue Protection Association chairman
David Weston said some companies were now attributing more than 20 per cent
of all electricity thefts to hydroponics.

"The theft of energy is nothing new but the fact that it now accounts for
as much as $120 million in annual losses should count for something," Mr
Weston said.

"The problem varies from state to state and season to season but we are
finding we're being called out to an increasing number of police jobs which
involve hydroponics.

"The problem is it's the honest, paying consumers that have to foot the bill."

EnergyAustralia, the NSW Government-owned power distributor, says the
proportion of theft cases involving marijuana has increased from "virtually
zero four years ago to about 30 per cent of all cases investigated".

At a power industry conference last week, police warned that the problem
was only likely to multiply given the ease with which potential thieves
could slow electricity meters or bypass them altogether.

Detecting the culprits was even more difficult, with most discovered
through ad hoc checks on consumption records or house fires caused by
faulty wiring.

Compounding that problem was the fact that NSW and Victorian domestic
consumers were due to join the new competitive market in December.

Privacy rules governing the national grid, which prevented companies from
accessing the consumption records of new consumers, would make it even
easier for electricity thieves to avoid detection, Eastern Energy spokesman
Ray Mullins said.

"The bottom line is (that) contestability leaves us even more vulnerable to
this area," he said.