Ptolemaida: arrests over electricity theft

A joint operation by the Crime Prevention and Suppression Unit and teams from grid operator DEDDIE in Ptolemaida led to arrests for illegal connection to the electricity network. According to e-Ptolemeos and Tharros Kozanis, the operation involved the OPKE units of Kozani, Florina and Grevena, the Eordaia crime prosecution and investigation department, the police station and the Eordaia traffic department. In the course of the checks, a total of fifty people and thirty vehicles were examined. The two sources disagree on the number of those arrested: e-Ptolemeos refers to eleven people, while Tharros Kozanis reports eight. The financial damage attributed to the network is calculated at 3,797 euros.

As of the morning of Monday 17 August 2026, no official statement had been issued by the General Regional Police Directorate of Western Macedonia clarifying the definitive number of arrests and the exact charges. The details of those arrested are not being made public and all are presumed innocent until an irrevocable court ruling is issued. Electricity theft is prosecuted as theft under criminal law and is accompanied by a civil claim from the network operator for the damage to be made good. Illegal connections are established by the operator’s technical teams, which draw up an inspection report and calculate the estimated energy consumed. That report is the main item of evidence both for the criminal prosecution and for the assessment of the damage.

The issue carries particular weight in Eordaia. For decades the area was the country’s energy centre, with the lignite plants of PPC supporting the local economy, and it is now in a transition phase following the phase-out of lignite. The unemployment and the fall in incomes that accompanied that transition form the backdrop against which cases of illegal connection appear, without this justifying them: beyond the financial damage, improvised connections bypass protection measures and create a serious risk of electrocution and fire. The Municipality of Eordaia has the largest population in the area after the regional capital and has borne the main weight of the structural changes of the past decade.

DEDDIE carries out targeted checks at intervals in cooperation with the Hellenic Police across the country, with the results usually made public operation by operation rather than in aggregate. It has not been announced whether the checks in Ptolemaida will continue in the coming days or whether they will be extended to other settlements in the Kozani area. TodayGrid will return to the story if an official police statement is issued clarifying the contradiction in the reports. More on the Crime page. Illegal connections are usually identified by cross-checking network consumption data against registered supply points, in order to reveal the areas with unexplained losses.