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Pirate Electrician Supplied Power To 1,500 Homes
fridaynightsmoke writes "A former electrical engineer for utility EDF has been prosecuted for illegally supplying power to some 1,500 homes in north London. Derek Brown, 45, was arrested in 2008 after being seen tampering with the electric grid in a manhole. He specialized in connecting separate supplies to houses that were split into apartments. One landlord involved, Haresh Parmar, was jailed for 9 months for stealing £30,000 worth of electricity for 22 of his apartments. Brown's assets will be seized and he has been sentenced to 8 months suspended, and 150 hours community service."
Dear Anonymous Coward,
That is why most stupid, crap-spewing dumbasses post as Anonymous Coward.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
The problem with this is that low users of energy will be subsidising the heavy users of energy. That's not just "unfair", but it also would cause some messed up flow-on effects in terms of behaviour and economics, that we want to avoid due to the real cost of producing this energy. It removes any incentives for people to use more energy-efficient appliances, and removes the incentive from manufacturers to invest in creating more energy-efficient appliances.
You could alleviate some of those problems with more government interference, but these tend to be kind of hamfisted and ineffective when compared to economic incentives. Not to mention they cost more money to maintain/enforce.
Much better to use a "user pays" system and provide some kind of subsidy to those who need it.