According to Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE), the project for the installation of smart electricity meters, set to start in 2022 and to be completed by 2030, will reduce electricity theft by an annual 5.1 % between 2021 and 2030, eventually reducing it to 0.2 % of the country’s annual consumption.
Electricity theft in Greece has increased by twenty times in the past 15 years. Although electricity distribution system operator DEDDIE said that the pandemic-induced economic slowdown since 2020 will raise obstacles in its effort to reduce electricity theft, RAE insists that the installation of smart meters will directly combat the problem by enabling officials to swiftly identify where electricity theft is being committed.
Electricity theft in Greece has risen from 0.2 % of total consumption in 2004, to 1.1 % between 2011 and 2013, 3.9 % in 2015 and 2016, and 4.4 % in 2018 and 2019.
