Systematic review of energy theft practices and autonomous detection through artificial intelligence methods

Energy theft poses a significant challenge for all parties involved in energy distribution, and its detection is crucial for maintaining stable and financially sustainable energy grids. One potential solution for detecting energy theft is through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) methods. This systematic review article provides an overview of the various methods used by malicious users to steal energy, along with a discussion of the challenges associated with implementing a generalized AI solution for energy theft detection. In this work, we analyze the benefits and limitations of AI methods, including machine learning, deep learning, and neural networks, and relate them to the specific thefts also analyzing problems arising with data collection. The article proposes key aspects of generalized AI solutions for energy theft detection, such as the use of smart meters and the integration of AI algorithms with existing utility systems. Overall, we highlight the potential of AI methods to detect various types of energy theft and emphasize the need for further research to develop more effective and generalized detection systems, providing key aspects of possible generalized solutions

Employing Environmental Data and Machine Learning to Improve Mobile Health Receptivity

Behavioral intervention strategies can be enhanced by recognizing human activities using eHealth technologies. As we find after a thorough literature review, activity spotting and added insights may be used to detect daily routines inferring receptivity for mobile notifications similar to just-in-time support. Towards this end, this work develops a model, using machine learning, to analyze the motivation of digital mental health users that answer self-assessment questions in their everyday lives through an intelligent mobile application. A uniform and extensible sequence prediction model combining environmental data with everyday activities has been created and validated for proof of concept through an experiment. We find that the reported receptivity is not sequentially predictable on its own, the mean error and standard deviation are only slightly below by-chance comparison. Nevertheless, predicting the upcoming activity shows to cover about 39% of the day (up to 58% in the best case) and can be linked to user individual intervention preferences to indirectly find an opportune moment of receptivity. Therefore, we introduce an application comprising the influences of sensor data on activities and intervention thresholds, as well as allowing for preferred events on a weekly basis. As a result of combining those multiple approaches, promising avenues for innovative behavioral assessments are possible. Identifying and segmenting the appropriate set of activities is key. Consequently, deliberate and thoughtful design lays the foundation for further development within research projects by extending the activity weighting process or introducing a model reinforcement.BMBF, 13GW0157A, Verbundprojekt: Self-administered Psycho-TherApy-SystemS (SELFPASS) - Teilvorhaben: Data Analytics and Prescription for SELFPASSTU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Model-Driven Analytics of Energy Meter Data in Smart Homes

The proliferation of smart meter deployments has led to significant interest in analyzing home energy use as part of the emerging \u27smart grid\u27. As buildings account for nearly 40% of society\u27s energy use, data from smart meters provides significant opportunities for both utilities and consumers to optimize energy use, minimize waste, and provide insight into how modern homes and devices use energy. Meter data is often difficult to analyze, however, owing to the aggregation of many disparate and complex loads as well as relatively coarse measurement granularities. At utility scales, analysis is further complicated by the vast quantity of data, which precludes the use of computationally intensive techniques when monitoring hundreds or even thousands of homes. In this thesis, I present an architecture for enabling smart homes using smart energy meters, encompassing efficient data collection and analysis to understand the behavior of home devices. I consider four primary challenges within this domain: (1) providing low-overhead data collection and processing for many devices, (2) designing models characterizing the energy use of modern devices, (3) using these models to track the real-time behavior of known devices, and (4) automatic identification of unknown devices in the home. To enable practical smart homes, my proposed architecture combines low-cost, off-the-shelf sensing equipment with a hybrid local and cloud-based processing backend. To analyze data within the environment, I first characterize the basic device types present in today\u27s homes (e.g., resistive, inductive, or non-linear) and distill the essential usage characteristics of each type. Using these characteristics, I construct a set of models that more accurately represents real-world devices than previous simplistic models. I then leverage this modeling framework to track the behavior of specific devices, using a technique that runs in close to real-time and can scale to many devices. Finally, I present a technique to automatically identify unknown devices attached to smart outlets in homes, which relieves homeowners of the need to manually describe devices in order to employ smart home optimizations

Revealing the Changing Spatial Structure of Cities from Human Activity Patterns

Identifying changes in the spatial structure of cities is a prerequisite for the development and validation of adequate planning strategies. Nevertheless, current methods of measurement are becoming ever more challenged by the highly diverse and intertwined ways of how people actually make use of urban space. Here, we propose a new quantitative measure for the centrality of locations, taking into account not only the numbers of people attracted to different locations, but also the diversity of the activities they are engaged in. This ‘centrality index’ allows for the identification of functional urban centres and for a systematic tracking of their relative importance over time, thus contributing to our understanding of polycentricity. We demonstrate the proposed index using travel survey data in Singapore for different years between 1997 and 2012. It is shown that, on the one hand, the city-state has been developing rapidly towards a polycentric urban form that compares rather closely with the official urban development plan. On the other hand, however, the downtown core has strongly gained in its importance, and this can be partly attributed to the recent extension of the public transit system

Intrusion Detection for Smart Grid Communication Systems

Transformation of the traditional power grid into a smart grid hosts an array of vulnerabilities associated with communication networks. Furthermore, wireless mediums used throughout the smart grid promote an environment where Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are very effective. In wireless mediums, jamming and spoofing attack techniques diminish system operations thus affecting smart grid stability and posing an immediate threat to Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) of the smart grid. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) serve as a primary defense in mitigating network vulnerabilities. In IDS, signatures created from historical data are compared to incoming network traffic to identify abnormalities. In this thesis, intrusion detection algorithms are proposed for attack detection in smart grid networks by means of physical, data link, network, and session layer analysis. Irregularities in these layers provide insight to whether the network is experiencing genuine or malicious activity

Identifying Behavioural Changes for Health Monitoring Applications using the Advanced Metering Infrastructure

The rising demand for health and social care, and around the clock monitoring services, is increasing and are unsustainable under current care provisions and legislation. Consequently, a safe and independent living environment is hard to achieve; yet the detection of sudden or worsening changes in a patient’s condition is vital for early intervention. The use of smart technologies in primary care delivery is increasing significantly. However, substantial research gaps remain in non-invasive and cost effective monitoring technologies. Where such technologies are used, they are considered too intrusive and often incapable of being personalised to the individual needs of patients. The inability to learn the unique characteristics of patients and their conditions seriously limits the effectiveness of most current solutions. The smart metering infrastructure provides new possibilities for a variety of emerging applications that are unachievable using the traditional energy grid. Between now and 2020, UK energy suppliers will install and configure of 50 million smart meters therefore providing access to a highly accurate sensing network. Each smart meter records accurately the electrical load for a given property at 30 minute intervals, 24 hours a day. This granular data captures detailed habits and routines through the occupant’s interactions with electrical devices, enabling the detection and identification of alterations in behaviour. The research presented in this paper explores how this data could be used to achieve a safe living environment for people living with progressive neurodegenerative disorders, such as Dementia