Energy Loss Management – A Collaborative

Approach to Securing Utility Revenue Streams

Jayesh Pillai
Senior Consultant
EON Consulting, South Africa
Agenda items
1 Energy Theft – Broader Context

2 Energy Loss Components

3• Revenue Management – Key Focus Areas

4• Loss Improvement Initiatives

5• Modular Approach for Implementation

6• Opportunity for Business Benefits

Energy theft – a bigger challenge than you think

Global phenomenon Huge revenue loss Network overloading

Power supply deficit Community safety hazard Silent crime

 Energy loss components – technical losses

• Technical losses are the loss of

energy due to energisation of
equipment (fixed losses) and current
flowing through electrical devices
(variable losses)

• Fixed losses are energy required by

the system to energize equipment and
keep the system ready, even when no
load is being serviced

• Variable losses are the losses that are

incurred as load is added to the system
and changed in proportion to the load
 Energy loss components – non-technical losses

• Non-technical losses
generally result from problems
with meter reading and related
accounting or energy theft

• Typical examples are:

• Stuck or faulty metering
• Tampered & by-passed meters
• Estimation errors
• Billing system data errors
• Illegal consumption
• Multiplication factors errors
• Meter reading errors
Revenue management – key focus areas & benefits

 Meter management
 Energy balancing
 Losses identification
 Improved cash flow
& normalisation
Energy Loss  Improved customer
Management satisfaction
 Reduced non-technical and
technical losses

 Viable infrastructure
Revenue expansion
Loss
Management  Improved delivery of
services
 Socially responsible
Benefits of
 Revenue recovery public
Effective
 Debt management Revenue  Improved municipal
 Debt collections Management reputation
 Legal prosecution
Typical loss improvement options

● Voltage optimisation ● Prioritised customer energy

● Power factor correction audits
● Increasing primary ● Energy balancing initiatives

Non-Technical Loss Focus

conductor size ● Targeting of high-loss
Technical Loss Focus

● Adding a parallel feeder customers

● Upsizing conductors or ● Upgrading metering
reconfiguring secondary technology
network ● Customer education and
● Voltage conversion awareness campaigns
● Using amorphous core ● Revenue recovery initiatives
transformers ● Prosecution of illegal usage
● Load balancing & multi- ● Unallocated sales
phasing normalisation
Customer centric options
Billing system anomaly reports

Customer stratification analysis

Customer education and

awareness campaigns

Customer complaints & tip-offs

Unallocated sales & free basic

electricity

Tariff design & time of use (TOU)

Revenue recovery & collections process

Network centric options
Technical loss simulation statistics

Station energy balancing analysis

Feeder energy balancing analysis

Area focused energy balancing

Cross border energy flow analysis

Statistical metering coverage plans

Smart metering data analytics

Key implementation elements

1 Prioritised audit list

2 Energy balance reports

Customer centric Focused

What communication
are the issues?
data 3 campaign

Network centric data Proactive implementation

4 approach
Improved monitoring &
5 reporting options

6 Improved customer data

Modular approach – RLM maturity dependent

Predictive
Modelling

Manage Anomalies
Smart Metering
Acceptable Losses Modelling
Revenue Recovery Legal & Prosecutions

Normalisation & Sustainability

Station, Feeder & Area Balancing Tech Loss Simulation

Customer Awareness & Education KPIs & Scorecards

Customer Stratification Tip-Offs Unallocated Sales & FBE
Prioritised Audit List
Tariff Metering Coverage Statistical Metering Coverage
Billing Anomaly Reports Total Purchases & Sales Data Check Metering
Customer Consumption Technical Loss (Benchmark) MV & LV Tech Loss Models
Determine the Total Energy Loss Split
Predictive modeling – Snapshot
Concept relates to:
• Prediction of Loss component categories
• Creation of an expectation per component category in advance
• Flag deviations from expected results within operating bounds
• Assess the linked components and contributions to deviation

Feed –In points

Purchase
Components Station Level
Feeder Level
Loss
Components
Key Customers
Sales
Components
LPU Customers
Residential
Predictive modeling – Examples
Business benefits

Modular approach Proactive strategy for

scalable to maturity of non-technical loss
operations management

Monitoring, reporting & Improved & reliable

evaluation customer data

Collaboration of efforts Increased field

between engineering, inspection productivity
retail and legal functions and visibility
Thank you !