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In 2025 alone, around 72,700 illegal connections were dismantled, the highest figure in the last five years, averaging 200 cases per day.
Cannabis plantations account for 26% of the energy recovered from fraud detected in recent years and are causing serious supply problems in some areas.
Endesa welcomes the recent tightening of penalties for electricity fraud in cases linked to cannabis cultivation.
Electricity fraud detected by Endesa over the past five years is equivalent to the annual consumption of more than one million households, a figure comparable to the total number of homes in two major Spanish cities: Barcelona and Seville. This highlights the scale of a problem that puts people’s physical safety at risk, deteriorates the quality of electricity supply, and drives up bills for all consumers.
In 2025 alone, Endesa’s network subsidiary, e-distribución, detected 72,700 cases of fraud, the highest figure in the last five years and 1,700 cases more than in 2024. This means that, over the past year, an average of 200 fraudulent setups were dismantled per day, more than eight per hour. Between 2021 and 2025, e-distribución closed more than 320,000 cases involving tampering with the distribution network, allowing over 3,750 GWh to be recovered.
Beyond the figures, electricity fraud poses a serious risk to people’s safety, both for those tampering with electrical installations and for those around them. In recent years, numerous cases of fires have originated from electricity fraud, and even fatal electrocutions.
Tampering with installations is also behind power outages in areas with high concentrations of fraud, affecting entire neighbourhoods, leading to a severe decline in supply quality, and impacting the daily lives of many families and businesses.
Cannabis plantations
One of the main causes of these problems is cannabis plantations set up in apartments and warehouses, which illegally tap into the grid, consume large amounts of electricity 24 hours a day, and ultimately overload the local electrical infrastructure. An average indoor plantation consumes as much electricity as 80 homes and represents a growing problem.
The European Drug Report 2025 indicates that Spain accounts for 73% of all cannabis plant seizures recorded in the EU, highlighting the sheer scale of the issue in our country. According to the Ministry of the Interior, indoor cannabis cultivation, often controlled by international criminal organisations, is particularly serious in some areas of Catalonia and Andalusia.
These organisations install cables over one kilometre long, electrify doors to prevent access to plantations, and even go as far as tampering with the fuses in transformer substations.
Over the past five years, Endesa’s network subsidiary has dismantled the electrical installations supplying around 10,600 indoor cannabis plantations in operations conducted alongside law enforcement agencies. The energy recovered from these frauds accounts for 26% of the total recorded energy theft.
In 2025 alone, around 1,850 indoor cannabis cultivation facilities were dismantled. The energy recovered from these frauds amounted to 182.7 million kWh.
The proliferation of these cannabis cultivation facilities causes continuous electrical problems for entire neighbourhoods. Strengthening the electricity grid by increasing capacity does not solve the issue, as the additional power is simply used to supply new plantations. In some areas, the available electrical power is up to five times higher than the legally contracted amount, but the scale of the fraud is such that it ultimately overwhelms the infrastructure.
In addition to grid disruptions, there is also a safety risk for workers, who must be accompanied by Law Enforcement Agencies and work with their faces covered to avoid identification. Over the past four years, company employees and contractor staff working in the field have suffered around one hundred cases of physical violence. Specifically, 58 assaults were recorded in 2025 while workers were carrying out operations to dismantle fraud.
Anonymous reporting
Beyond cooperation with Law Enforcement Agencies and the use of new technologies and AI to combat fraud, anonymous reports are another effective way to fight this crime. e-distribución provides several channels for anonymously reporting suspected cases of electricity fraud or irregular installations: the phone number 800 760 220, the email address anomalias@enel.com, and the form that can be filled on the website www.edistribucion.com. During 2025, citizen reports led to 22,000 inspections, which resulted in action being taken on nearly 6,000 electricity supply points experiencing energy losses.
Legal framework and pull factor
Despite the continuous strengthening of technical and human resources deployed by e-distribución to combat electricity fraud, the comparatively more lenient criminal framework in force in Spain to combat this crime has had a very limited deterrent effect.
In its 2025 Annual Report, the State Attorney General’s Office noted that in Germany, France, and Italy, electricity fraud “is punishable by prison sentences, whereas the minimal severity of the Spanish criminal law, which provides only for fines, is likely to attract organised crime networks to our country.”
In this regard, Endesa welcomes the recent entry into force of Organic Law 1/2026, regarding repeat offending, which amends the Criminal Code and introduces an aggravated subtype for the offence of electricity theft in cases linked to cannabis cultivation. This reform, which toughens penalties and provides for prison sentences of six to eighteen months or fines of twelve to twenty-four months, represents a step forward compared to the previous framework for addressing an issue that is particularly serious in certain areas of Spain.
The fraud in figures
52% of the energy stolen through fraud comes from industry, businesses, large consumers, and cannabis plantations.
Only 5% of the fraud corresponds to small residential supplies with a contracted capacity below 3 kW.
Nearly 60% of fraud cases stem from direct illegal connections without a contract, while the remaining 40% involve fraud in supplies with a contract.
In 2025, eight fraud cases were detected every hour.
About Endesa
Endesa is the leading electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal. It is also the second largest gas operator in the Spanish market. Endesa operates an integrated business model spanning electricity generation, distribution, and supply. Furthermore, the company offers value-added services focused on the electrification of energy use for households, businesses, and public administrations. Endesa is committed to the UN SDGs and corporate social responsibility. In the latter area, it also operates through the Endesa Foundation. Our team comprises around 9,000 employees. Endesa is part of Enel.