your electricity bill could increase because of fraudsters, here’s why


Even if you never touch your Linky meter, it could be that because of people tampering with it, your electricity bill will automatically increase. Explanations.

Electricity price increase
Credits: 123RF

This has been a trend for many years: overall, the cost of living is increasing. An observation that applies almost everywhere: the price of food, leisure, rent… Without forgetting that ofelectricity. It is also one of the rare expenses over which we can have an influence. Turn down the heating by one or two degrees, don’t leave the lights and appliances on when you leave a room… You know all these actions that are regularly repeated, especially as winter approaches to avoid overloading the electrical network and cuts it causes.

But some people don’t bother with these kinds of tricks. They prefer to tamper with their Linky meter to artificially lower their bill. A widespread practice despite the arrest of organized networks and the identification of fraudsters. Even Enedis warns that the modification of a Linky is spotted very quickly, in particular thanks to artificial intelligence. The attempts continue, however, and they could have a very unpleasant effect on honest people: a higher electricity bill.

Linky meter fraud risks increasing the electricity bill of all customers

On your Enedis invoice, the total to be paid is divided into several parts. Among them, we find your consumption of course, but also what is called TURPETHE Tariff for Use of Public Electricity Networks. He is set each year by the State after notice of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) and is used in summary to pay Enedis. The TURPE must therefore take into account all the costs borne by the company, including what it calls “non-technical losses“. And it turns out that the latter cover the theft of energy.

Read also – Linky: fake Enedis agents seek to scam users

In other words: the more Enedis loses money due to Linky meter fraud, the more the amount of non-technical losses increases. This leads to an increase in TURPE and therefore in the part that the customer pays on their electricity bill.. It is difficult to precisely quantify what this represents, but the risk of seeing the amount inflate is unfortunately very real.



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