ELECTRICITY

THEFT
A MAJOR ISSUE IN POWER
INDUSTRY
PRESENTED BY:
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SAURABH VERMA

CONTENTS

Introduction

Indias generation capacity

Indias consumption capacity
Deficit
Electricity theft
Major causes of electricity theft
Measures to control theft
Conclusion

INTRODUCTION
Many developing countries confront widespread theft of
electricity from government owned power utilities.
In India electricity theft leads to annual losses estimated
at US$4.5 billion, about 1.5 percent of GDP.
Who are the losers??
Honest consumers, poor people, and those without
connections, who bear the burden of high tariffs, system
inefficiencies, and inadequate and unreliable power
supply.
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ELECTRICITY
THEFT

WHAT IS ELECTRICITY THEFT.???

It is the use of electrical power without a contract
with a supplier with total or partial bypassing
metering system

OR
Interfering this system in the way to adulterate
its measurements.

MAJOR CAUSES OF ELECTRICITY

THEFT
Absence of accountability.
Inadequate and ineffective enforcement of law.
Political protection
influential customers.

to

employees

and

Customer attitude: Immoral to steal from

neighbor but legitimate to steal from state.
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WHERE DOES ELECTRICITY THEFT

OCCUR MOST COMMONLY

ELECTRICITY THEFT METHODS

Meters:
Tampering with meters and seals
By-passing the meters
Damaging or removing meters

Wires/ Cables:
Illegal tapping to bare wires or underground cables
Transformers:
Illegal terminal taps of overhead lines on the low
side of the transformer
Billing irregularities made by meter readers.
Unpaid bills by individuals, government institutions
and untouchable VIPs.

FEW OTHER WAYSFOR POWER

THEFT

Use of single phasesupply from three phase supply.

Disconnected neutral from boththe ends.
Used earth/separate neutral for return circuit.
Connecting phase voltage to neutral of used single
phase supply. Potential difference w.r.t. neutral of
usedsingle phasesupply iszero. Hence power product of
voltage and current, will be zero.
Isolating neutral from both ends.

THEFT OCCURS WHEN:

An illegal consumer(not a registered customer)
steals directly from the distribution lines or from
another legal customer.
A legal customer(registered customer) steals
either bypassing the meter (connecting around the
meter to a live cable on the company side of the meter)
or tampering with the meter to make it read less or no
consumption.
There is a collusion between the customer and a
company employee to reduce the amount paid to the
company (with lower side payments to the employee in10
return).

METER TAMPERING

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ILLEGAL WIRING

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OTHER WAYS TO STEAL ELECTRICITY

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HOW CAN ELECTRICITY THEFT BE

REDUCED

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NON TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS

Financial rewards:
Utilitycompanies encourage consumers to report
electricity theft

Periodic checks:
Electricity theftfrequently takes place after service has
been disconnected. Some utility companies periodically
check disconnected meters ifthe customer has
notcontacted them to reconnect service.
Enforcement of law: Fines should be imposed by the
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government for stealing electricity.

Taps, makes or causes to be made any connection with

overhead, underground or under water lines or cables, or
service wires, or service facilities of a licensee;
Tampers a meter, installs or uses a tampered meter, current
reversing transformer, loop connection or any other device or
method which interferes with accurate or proper
registration, calibration or metering of electric current or
otherwise results in a manner whereby electricity is stolen
or wasted.
Damages or destroys an electric meter, apparatus,
equipment, or wire or causes or allows any of them to be so
damaged or destroyed as to interfere with the proper or
accurate metering of electricity, so as to abstract or consume
or use electricity shall be punishable with imprisonment
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for a term which may extend to three years or with
fine or with both.

TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS
Electronic tamper detection meter
Pre payment meters
Plastic meter encasements
Anti theft cable
Using GSM
Using PLCs
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Electronic Tamper Detection Meters

Automatic detection of:

Meter Tamper
Meter Bypass
Meter Disconnection

Often have sensors that can

report opening of the meter
cover, magnetic anomalies,
extra clock setting, glued
buttons, inverted installation,
reversed or switched phases
etc.

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Pre-Payment Meters
1. Credit added to the
meter on a keypad.
2. Credit is purchased on
a rechargeable token or a
card and entered into the
meter with disconnection
ability.
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PLASTIC METER
ENCASEMENTS
Hard plastic encasements
are a type of a meter seal.
These transparent plastic
covers serve as a warning
and therefore reduce
electricity theft

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ANTI-THEFT CABLE
Coaxial (or Concentric) cables

Plastic layer

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PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC
CONTROLLER(PLC

If an AMR system via PLC is set in a power

delivery system, a detection system for illegal
electricity usage may be easily added in the
existing PLC network.
In the detection system, the second digitally
energy meter chip is used and the value of energy
is stored. The recorded energy is compared with
the value at the main kilowatt-hour meter.
In the case of difference between two recorded
energy data, in error signal is generated and
transmitted via PLC network.

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CONCLUSION
Modern Grid is operated at its thermal limits.
Because of illegal use of electricity honest users
as well as utility company are facing problems. So
detecting theft is very important and new and
effective technologies which can detect theft need
to be developed because every day some new
technique is being developed for bluffing utility
companies.

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THANK YOU

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