- In the last three years, company employees and contractors working on-site have suffered a hundred assaults and threats while dismantling frauds.
- Numerous fires and electrocutions have been recorded due to the manipulation of installations. In the past two weeks alone, five transformer stations in Andalusia were burned due to overload: three in Seville, one in Almeria, and another in Granada.
- Endesa's Networks subsidiary, e-distribution, has detected more than 32,336 electrical frauds in the first half of this year, a 40% increase compared to the same period last year.
e-distribution, Endesa's network subsidiary, disconnected 1,260 illegal hook-ups feeding marijuana plantations from the electrical grid in the first half of the year, seven per day. This figure represents a 14% increase compared to the same period last year and highlights the magnitude of an escalating problem that threatens the physical safety of local residents and the quality of supply in areas with a high concentration of fraud. In recent years, numerous cases of fires and electrocutions related to the manipulation of electrical installations have been recorded. In the past month, five transformer stations in Andalusia (three in Seville, one in Almería, and one in Granada) were burned due to being unable to withstand the overload on the grid caused by massive fraud, especially from marijuana plantations.
The energy consumed by the plantations detected between January and June of this year amounted to 141 million KWh, the equivalent of the consumption of around 40,300 homes, and represented 35% of all the energy fraud detected by Endesa. However, it is estimated that the total consumption of electricity by cannabis plantations in Spain is around 2.2 TWh, equivalent to the demand of Seville for one year.
The indoor marijuana plantations, which are known as indoor grow operations, have grown significantly in recent years. Security forces' data indicates that they are harder to detect and have a higher yield than open-air plantations, with four to six harvests per year. These two factors are key to explaining the significant share of indoor plantations in marijuana cultivation in Spain, which, according to the European Drug Report 2024, accounted for 81% of the marijuana plants seized in the European Union in 2022.
The lighting and ventilation systems used to accelerate plant growth operate 24 hours a day through illegal connections that wreak havoc on the electrical grid. The overload activates the protections of the transformer stations and causes supply interruptions that affect local residents. The electricity consumption is so high, and the manipulation of the installations is so devastating, that it causes fires in underground lines and transformer stations, to the point where up to 15 blown fuses per day have been recorded in a single transformer station. In July, three transformer stations were burned in Seville, in the neighborhoods of Polígono Sur, Los Pajaritos, and Torreblanca, due to the overload caused by massive fraud, with no casualties. Similarly, for the same reason, one transformer station was burned in the El Puche neighborhood in Almería, and another in Pinos Puente in Granada.
These illegal connections cause fires in general facilities, but also in the buildings and homes where the plantations are located, creating serious risks both for the people who manipulate the installations and for the surrounding neighbors, who also suffer from electrical supply issues.
In some areas of the grid managed by e-distribution, power has been increased in an attempt to avoid supply interruptions to residents, but even though the installed power is up to twelve times greater than what would be necessary based on the population, incidents continue to occur, demonstrating a high volume of illegal connections to the grid.
Growing Violence
Apart from the electrical risk, the proliferation of these illegal installations controlled by "transnational organizations with significant criminal activities," according to the Ministry of the Interior, also poses a physical risk for the actions of e-distribution inspectors and technicians. In a context of growing violence, in certain areas, they must work with their faces covered to avoid identification, and they always carry out their tasks accompanied by police forces when disconnecting marijuana plantations.
Coercion and threats to workers are recorded in all types of inspection tasks, not just those related to plantations. In the last three years, company employees and contractors working on-site have suffered a hundred cases of physical and verbal violence, specifically 51 cases of assaults and 45 threats, when dismantling frauds. This increasing hostility is also experienced by technicians when they travel to repair incidents caused by network manipulation.
Illegal connections linked to marijuana plantations, along with the large consumption associated with industrial activity and businesses, account for 74% of the energy fraud detected by Endesa's network subsidiary. In the first six months of this year, e-distribution detected 32,336 cases of electrical fraud, a 40% increase compared to the same period in 2023, which means an average of seven frauds discovered every hour. The volume of energy recovered from these frauds amounts to 397 million KWh, the equivalent of the consumption of 113,000 households.
200,000 Inspections
The use of the latest technologies and artificial intelligence has become valuable allies in detecting fraudulent installations, but the final work is done by the company and contractor technicians and inspectors, who have carried out nearly 200,000 on-site inspections so far this year to detect network manipulations.
In some of these inspections, the collaboration of citizens was crucial, as they can anonymously inform their distribution company if they suspect fraud is occurring in their surroundings. Customers in the Endesa distribution area can write to the email address anomalias@enel.com, fill out a form on the edistribucion.com website, or call the toll-free number 800760220.
In addition to the risks to personal safety and the impact on the quality of the electrical supply, fraud has a significant economic impact on society as a whole. Estimates indicate that electrical fraud costs Spanish consumers more than 2 billion euros per year, the equivalent of 69 euros per year per supply point.
Despite the importance of these figures and the impact activities such as indoor marijuana cultivation have on the neighborhoods where they are located, penalties for electrical fraud in Spain are lower than those in neighboring countries like France, Italy, or Germany.
Endesa reiterates its commitment to collaborate with all administrations and relevant parties to find solutions to this problem, which has a significant impact on society as a whole.
About Endesa
Endesa is a leading electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal. It is also the second largest gas operator in the Spanish market. It undertakes end-to-end business including the generation, distribution and retailing of electricity. It also offers electric mobility services, where it is one of the main operators of charging stations in Spain, and, through the Endesa X brand, value-added services aimed at the electrification of energy uses in homes, companies, industries and Public Administrations. Endesa is firmly committed to the United Nations SDGs and strongly supports the development of renewable energies through Enel Green Power España, the digitalisation of grids through e-distribución and Corporate Social Responsibility. The Endesa Foundation is also active in CSR. Our workforce numbers around 9,000 employees. Endesa is part of Enel, Europe's largest electricity group.
