It might not be the first thing you would imagine but lie detector tests could keep energy costs down!
The cost of energy in the UK is rising and there are many reasons for this. Investment in renewable energy, the cost of wholesale energy and theft plays a big part. It’s imperative that energy companies keep their costs down and they try many different ways of doing this.
Gas, electricity and water companies all struggle with these outgoing costs. Looking at your bills, there are taxes, green energy and all sorts of things that we struggle to understand. But one underlying cost that affects us all is theft – theft of gas, electricity and even water. Some dishonest people have found ways to bypass meters and ensure they’re paying little or nothing at all. So where does this cost go?
Revenue Protection Officers
Unfortunately, for those of us that pay our bills on time, maybe by direct debit or by going down to the post office on the day the bill arrives, we pick up this bill. It’s not just the cost of the fuel they’ve stolen but the additional cost to the revenue protection officers who work tirelessly keeping people safe from these cowboys. The work involved in correcting “bodge” jobs is immense, sometimes involving police due to aggression. When the revenue protection officer arrives the meter or wiring could be hours away from a fatal occurrence. These people don’t understand the work they’ve done to get that little bit of free energy could be potentially fatal to them, their families and the immediate surrounding area. How you ask?
Electricity wiring not installed properly could cause a fire. Gas meters bypassed could leak and cause an explosion and we all know what happens when water is mixed with electricity. The cost to life and property is unthinkable.
The costly ‘three instance’ system
Once theft is detected, the authorities do take it very seriously. For instance take a look at the case of a Dublin man who was finally caught by clicking here
The issue with this is that he would have been warned on at least 3 occasions prior to prosecution. For some obscure reason he managed to avoid being caught immediately. The process is simple – caught once – warning and a fine for the energy lost. The cost of the investigation has to be passed to the customer, since the energy company has no choice in recouping the lost revenue. The second time, the same thing happens and then the third time it gets serious with police involvement and potentially conviction.
Each time someone moves into a property, they are at risk of being accused of tampering. They may not have done it, or they may have, but how do we know? This is how a lie detector test could keep energy costs down. The revenue protection officer is currently responsible for making a judgement call as to whom he believes has tampered with the supply. There is no fool proof way within these industries of knowing who has done what. In some cases, customers have to pay these fines when the person prior to them was the criminal and not them. It’s extremely difficult to prove otherwise.
Lie detector tests could keep energy costs down easily
The cost to energy companies worldwide is staggering. In the UK alone it costs us £500 million on average per year. The ‘three instances per person’ system is costly when it could have been picked up at the first instance with a lie detector test. If energy companies incorporated the necessity for their customers to take lie detector tests in their contracts, they could reduce these enormous annual costs by a third. Can your energy company, regulators and our government afford not to at least look into this? What do you think?
We invite energy providers to contact us for more information about how lie detector tests could keep energy costs down.