1. Power theft is a major problem in India, costing billions of rupees annually. Common methods of theft include tampering with meters, bypassing meters, and illegal taps of distribution lines. 2. Technical solutions proposed to detect power theft include electronic tamper detection meters, pre-payment meters, plastic meter enclosures, and using programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and GSM networks to automatically read meters and detect anomalies. 3. A PLC-based system would install meters with PLC modules high on power poles to transmit usage data through power lines to displays in homes, while a second meter verifies usage to detect theft. GSM networks could also enable automatic remote meter reading to

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POWER THEFT
DETECTION
Presented By : Aravind Shaji
Roll N0 : 03
Reg No : 13035127
EEE - E5 ,GPTC Nattakom

2. INTRODUCTION
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India, the largest democracy with an
estimated population of about 1.04 billion, is
on a road to rapid growth in economy.
Energy, particularly electricity, is a key input
for accelerating economic growth.
The theft of electricity is a criminal offence
and power utilities are losing billions of
rupees in this account.
The following sections will describe the
proposed detection and control system for
illegal electricity usage using the power lines.

3. WHAT IS POWER 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.
.
• Power theft includes *Direct hooking from line
*Bypassing the energy meter *Injecting foreign element
into the energy meter *Physical obstruction etc..
.
• World loses US$89.3 billion annually to electricity theft. The
highest losses were in India ($16.2 billion), followed
by Brazil ($10.5 billion) and Russia ($5.1 billion).
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4. 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 in
return).
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5. POWER 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.
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6. FEW OTHER WAYS OF POWER THEFT
Use of single phase supply from three phase supply.
Disconnected neutral from both the 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 used single
phase supply is zero. Hence power product of voltage and
current, will be zero.
Isolating neutral from both ends.
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7. .
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8.  HOW CAN ELECTRICITY THEFT BE REDUCED
NON TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS
 Financial rewards:
Utility companies encourage consumers to report electricity theft
‡
 Periodic checks:
Electricity theft frequently takes place after service has been
disconnected. Some utility companies periodically check
disconnected meters if the customer has not contacted them to
reconnect service.
 Enforcement of law:
Fines should be imposed by the government for stealing electricity.

9. TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS
Electronic tamper detection meter
Pre payment meters
Plastic meter encasements
Anti theft cable
Using GSM
Using PLCs
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10. 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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11. Pre-Payment Meters
 Credit added to the meter on a
keypad.
 Credit is purchased on a
rechargeable token or a card and
entered into the meter with
disconnection ability
 It help in the reduction of non
paid bills and meter reading
iregularities
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12. Electronic Tamper Detection Meters
 High performance Electronic Tamper
Detection Meter reference design that integrates an ultra low-
power tilt sensor used for electronic tamper detection.
Automatic detection of :
Meter tamper
Meter Bypass
Meter disconnection
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14. Programmable Logic Controller(PLC)
PLC Presents an interesting and economical solution for
automatic meter reading (AMR).
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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15. Programming of PLC
Early PLC’s were
programmed by
using specific
purpose programming
terminals.
Recently PLC’s are
programmed
using application
software's on personal
computers.
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16. INSTALLTION OF PLC
Power meters with PLC modules will be installed near the
top of the power polls.
Meters installed in high places will send data of the used
amount to each household through power lines.
Homeowners can then check the amount used on the
displays installed in each house.
This means that the measurement function and the display
function of the meters will be separated.
Power theft is prevented by installing HD-PLC-mounted
power meters on a high position on power polls, while the
amount of power used in each household can still be
checked. 16

17. Modern PLC’s
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18. DEFINITION ON AMR
 AMR(AUTOMATIC METER READING) automates the
process of measurement through digital communication
techniques.
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19. .
 Automatic meter reading, or AMR, is the technology of
automatically collecting consumption, diagnostic, and
status data from energy metering devices or water meter
(gas, electric) and transferring that data to a central
database for billing, troubleshooting, and analyzing.
 This technology mainly saves utility providers the expense
of periodic trips to each physical location to read a meter.
 Billing can be based on near real-time consumption rather
than on estimates based on past or predicted
consumption.
 AMR technologies include handheld, mobile and network
technologies based on telephony platforms (wired and
wireless), radio frequency (RF), or powerline transmission.
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20. FUNCTONS OF AMR SYSTEM
Every user has two PLC modems; one is for AMR
and the other is used to send the data from second
energy meter chip to host PLC modem.
An energy meter must be connected in the
connection box between a home line and main
power lines.
The host PLC unit must be placed in the
distribution transformer and the configuration of
the addressing format of PLC signaling must be
designed carefully.
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21. GSM BASED AUTOMATIC METER READING
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22. GSM MODEM
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23. CONCLUSION
 By using techniques above the crime of stealing power
may be brought to an end and thereby a new bloom
may be expected in the economy of ourmotherland and
also there will be less scarcity for power utilisation
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