Understanding Electricity-Theft Behavior via Multi-Source Data

Electricity theft, the behavior that involves users conducting illegal operations on electrical meters to avoid individual electricity bills, is a common phenomenon in the developing countries. Considering its harmfulness to both power grids and the public, several mechanized methods have been developed to automatically recognize electricity-theft behaviors. However, these methods, which mainly assess users' electricity usage records, can be insufficient due to the diversity of theft tactics and the irregularity of user behaviors. In this paper, we propose to recognize electricity-theft behavior via multi-source data. In addition to users' electricity usage records, we analyze user behaviors by means of regional factors (non-technical loss) and climatic factors (temperature) in the corresponding transformer area. By conducting analytical experiments, we unearth several interesting patterns: for instance, electricity thieves are likely to consume much more electrical power than normal users, especially under extremely high or low temperatures. Motivated by these empirical observations, we further design a novel hierarchical framework for identifying electricity thieves. Experimental results based on a real-world dataset demonstrate that our proposed model can achieve the best performance in electricity-theft detection (e.g., at least +3.0% in terms of F0.5) compared with several baselines. Last but not least, our work has been applied by the State Grid of China and used to successfully catch electricity thieves in Hangzhou with a precision of 15% (an improvement form 0% attained by several other models the company employed) during monthly on-site investigation.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, WWW'20 full pape

Electricity theft: Overview, issues, prevention and a smart meter based approach to control theft

Non-technical loss (NTL) during transmission of electrical energy is a major problem in developing countries and it has been very difficult for the utility companies to detect and fight the people responsible for theft. Electricity theft forms a major chunk of NTL. These losses affect quality of supply, increase load on the generating station, and affect tariff imposed on genuine customers. This paper discusses the factors that influence the consumers to steal electricity. In view of these ill effects, various methods for detection and estimation of the theft are discussed. This paper proposes an architectural design of smart meter, external control station, harmonic generator, and filter circuit. Motivation of this work is to deject illegal consumers, and conserve and effectively utilize energy. As well, smart meters are designed to provide data of various parameters related to instantaneous power consumption. NTL in the distribution feeder is computed by external control station from the sending end information of the distribution feeder. If a considerable amount of NTL is detected, harmonic generator is operated at that feeder for introducing additional harmonic component for destroying appliances of the illegal consumers. For illustration, cost-benefit analysis for implementation of the proposed system in India is presented.Electricity theft Non-technical losses Energy policy

Smart meters for power grid: Challenges, issues, advantages and status

Smart meter is an advanced energy meter that measures consumption of electrical energy providing additional information compared to a conventional energy meter. Integration of smart meters into electricity grid involves implementation of a variety of techniques and software, depending on the features that the situation demands. Design of a smart meter depends on the requirements of the utility company as well as the customer. This paper discusses various features and technologies that can be integrated with a smart meter. In fact, deployment of smart meters needs proper selection and implementation of a communication network satisfying the security standards of smart grid communication. This paper outlines various issues and challenges involved in design, deployment, utilization, and maintenance of the smart meter infrastructure. In addition, several applications and advantages of smart meter, in the view of future electricity market are discussed in detail. This paper explains the importance of introducing smart meters in developing countries. In addition, the status of smart metering in various countries is also illustrated.Power grid Metering infrastructure Communication technologies Smart grid Smart meters