ISSN: 2278 – 909X

International Journal of Advanced Research in Electronics and Communication Engineering (IJARECE)

Volume 5, Issue 4, April 2016

WIRELESS ELECTRICITY THEFT DETECTION

AND MONITORING
Dr. Pramod Sharma1Himanshu gupta2Megha sharma3Rohit singh4Ashish Khan5
1
Faculty,PG department of Electronics & Communication, Raja Balwant Singh Engineering
Technical Campus, Bichpuri Agra.
2,3,4,5
Final year students (EC), Raja Balwant Singh Engineering Technical Campus, Bichpuri
Agra.

Abstract -Electricity theft can be termed as fraud situation [3][4]. In this project, the electricity theft is
which can be in the form of meter tampering, illegal detected and monitored by comparing the power
connections, billing irregularities and unpaid bills. generated by the energy meters. Basically, it consists
The financial records indicate that most of the theft of of two energy meters. One energy meter (EMP) is
electricity is in the form of stealing of power . In this present at the pole from where the power is supplied
research we have focused on the most common to the homes and the other energy meter (EMH) is
practice of stealing power which is bypassing or present at the homes. Power supplied by the EMP and
tampering the meter. We have designed a system EMH are compared by the microcontroller. If the
which can detect the theft of electric power in a line difference between the two is more than the
and inform the nearest substation with the location of particular value, then a relay which is interfaced with
line in which theft has occurred the processing unit will switch off the power supply
of the homes. One more relay is interfaced with the
Keywords- Comparator, Electricity theft, Meter microcontroller to activate the GSM calling. Through
Tampering, Microcontroller, Power consumption, this, the information of the theft is sent to the
Theft detection, Energy meter (EM), Opto
Coupler (OP) respective sub-stations.

INTRODUCTION LITERATURE SURVEY

Electricity has become one of the most necessary In the past, various methods had been introduced to
elements of our daily life. Nowadays, it is something detect and control the power theft. A brief survey of
that people cannot live without. It has become a various solutions is presented.
necessary element for the survival of maximum
human beings. But with the increasing need of the Thomas B Smith [1] carried out a deep study on the
electricity, the electricity theft is also increasing and ELECTRICITY THEFT and its various ways. Acc.to
it will keep on continuing until some measures are this research electricity theft can be termed as fraud
not taken to detect and control it[9]. However, such as metre tampering, billing irregularities, and
various methods were introduced to overcome this unpaid bills. Electricity can be reduced by

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All Rights Reserved © 2016 IJARECE

 ISSN: 2278 – 909X
International Journal of Advanced Research in Electronics and Communication Engineering (IJARECE)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April 2016

introducing new technologies such as Tampere proof earned by the electrical board goes waste due to
meters, managerial methods such as inspection and electric power theft. Previous attempt to monitor the
monitoring, and in some cases restricting power activities has not resulted in efficient manner due to
systems ownership and regulations. some of the illegal practices of some of these
employs and consumers. This research aims at
Soma ShekaraSreenadh Reddy Depuru, reducing all these difficulties by fabricating a simple
LingfengWang, Vijay Devabhaktuni [2] focused on system to send a message whenever there is a power
the factors that provoke the consumers to steal theft activity at a certain location
electricity. In view of these ill effects, various
methods for detection and estimation of theft are Pradeep Mittal (Assistant Professor), [7] studied the
discussed. This paper proposes an architectural electricity theft detection using microcontroller. The
design of smart meter circuit. Motivation of this work wireless system reduces the cost of man power used
is to detect illegal consumers, and conserve and to transfer the billing details as well as information
effectively utilize energy. As well as smart meters are regarding theft by consumers. The pointing feature of
designed to provide data for various parameters the proposed work is that no man power is required
related to instantaneous power consumption. to note down the energy readings of electricity
consumption.
G. L. Prashanthi, K. V. Prasad, [5] researched to
record the power consumed by a model organization Sahoo, Sanujit, [8] has proposed a temperature
such a household consumers from a commonly predictive model which uses smart meter data and
located point. Recording the power means measuring data from distribution box meters to detect electricity
the power consumed exactly by the user at a given theft in a particular location. The model was tested
time. The energy used by the user is measured and for varying amounts of power thefts and also for
the records are sent to the controlling substation different types of circuit approximations.
whenever needed by the person at the nearest
substation. The feedback from any of the consumers PROPOSED SYSTEM
helps in analyzing the usages between legal and The proposed system is designed to prevent the
illegal users which helps in controlling the power electricity theft happening in the present scenario. the
theft. Communication between the house hold meters increasing rates of the per unit electric power,
and the substation is done with the means of wireless because of theft of electricity due t this the electricity
communication. The scope of this study is limited supplier companies are not able to recover the
with the detection of power theft and not identifying invested amount, thus they have to undergo a large
the exact location. loss of revenue and thus, they increase the rates of
A recent research conducted by electricity unit which the consumer has to pay.
Mr.M.V.N.R.P.kumar, Mr. Ashutosh Kumar, Mr.
The proposed system will prevent the theft of electric
A.V.Athalekar, Mr.P.G.Desai, Mr. M.P. Nanaware
power as much as possible. This system will not only
[6] monitors that about 30-35 percent of the profit
detects the theft of electricity but also trace the

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All Rights Reserved © 2016 IJARECE

 ISSN: 2278 – 909X
International Journal of Advanced Research in Electronics and Communication Engineering (IJARECE)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April 2016

location of theft and will trip the power supply of

stolen power and also notify the nearest substation
authority about this theft with exact location of the
theft. This system will be installed at the supplier end
but not at the consumer end. This system will need a
background support in which separate lines for each
connection will be installed from distribution boxes
which are installed after the area transformers. The
design system consist of 2 meters, 1 will be installed
as the domestic meter which will monitor and
indicate the power consumption of the house, and
other will be installed inside the distribution box on
the line the connection, which will indicate the power
consumption of the line which starts from the
distribution box and ends up at the house. Thus,
Fig 1.(EMP -Energy Meter pole, EMH-Energy meter Home, OP-
every house will be having 2 meters, other than this
Opto Coupler)
there will be a processing unit which is programmed
accordingly and with the help of 2 meters of a METHODOLOGY
connection this unit can identify theft, if it identifies To design the proposed system as described earlier in
theft then the system automatically cut of the power the document. We use 2 analog energy meters, 1
supply of that particular connection and will notify indicating the pole/distribution box reading or the
the nearest substation that theft has been occurred at power consumption of the line, and the other
this location. One additional feature which is added indicating the power consumption of the house i.e.
to the system is that it can detect any kind of problem the home meter. These analog meters generate pulse
arising due to electricity such as short circuit. This on consumption of electricity, thus we count those
part will be interfaced with the system and sensors pulses and measure the reading accordingly. To count
are used to sense problem if any problem sensed the these pulses we use optocoupler ICs which converts
supply will be cut of and the LCD screen will display the analog pulses from the meter to the digital pulses
the problem. which can be detected and counted by the
microcontroller. The microcontroller we used is of
BLOCK DIAGRAM
8051 family, IC-AT89S52/C51 this microcontroller
counts the pulses and measures the readings of both
the meters i.e. home meter and pole meter. Ideally
both these readings i.e. the power consumption of the
line of the connection and the house should be equal
if the they are no T&D losses, but if there is some
theft happening between pole and the house then

996

All Rights Reserved © 2016 IJARECE

 ISSN: 2278 – 909X
International Journal of Advanced Research in Electronics and Communication Engineering (IJARECE)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April 2016

reading of both meters will be different. Thus, the Is

EMP EMH theft
reading of the pole meter will be greater than that of detected?
the home meter an the micro controller will detect
this and thus the power supply will be cut off of that 1 1 No
No. of
connection the microcontroller will call the nearest units
substation with the help of the cell phone this will consumed 2 1 No

notify the connection number of the theft and LCD

3 1 No
screen is used to display theft message which will be
in the substation which indicates the line and location
4 1 Yes
of the theft in addition of this a buzzer will also start
in the substation indicating theft has occurred. Now,
the precaution module consist of sensors which can It became more clear from the above table that when
be of any kind Fire, voltage, moisture etc. due to the difference in the units of EMP and EMH is more
which short circuit can happen which can result in than 2, then theft is detected.
serious damage, the voltage from the sensor will be
compared to the supply voltage if the problem occurs
there sensor will be triggered and the comparators CONCLUSION
LM-351 used will give the signal to the
microcontroller and it trips the supply of the house. A Wireless Electricity Theft Detection and

The supply of the house i.e. the load is operated Monitoring has been designed and developed with

through a relay so that the microcontroller can trip proper integration of both the hardware and the

the supply software. Relays are interfaced with the

microcontroller and this interface is synchronized
with the whole process of the theft detection and
RESULTS
monitoring. For this project, the knowledge of
Results include the successful operation of the electrical and electronics application had been
electricity theft detection and monitoring system. The proven.
system contains two energy meters EMP and EMH .
We observe that when the power sent by the EMP is ACKNOWLEDGMENT
equal to or nearly equal to the power consumed by We owe special depth of gratitude to Er. Srijan
the EMH then there is no power theft but when there Churasiya, teacher and H.O.D department of
is the difference between the two, then there exist a Research and Development, Sofcon India pvt. Ltd.
power theft which will get detected. Noida, and P.G. Deptt. Of Electronics and
Communication, Raja Balwant Singh Engg. Tech.
Campus Bichpuri, Agra for the facility provided by
them.

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All Rights Reserved © 2016 IJARECE

 ISSN: 2278 – 909X
International Journal of Advanced Research in Electronics and Communication Engineering (IJARECE)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April 2016

REFERENCES [8]Sahoo, Sanujit, WIRELESS ELECTRICITY

[1]Thomas B Smith, Electricity theft: A Comparative THEFT DETECTIONInnovative SmartGrid
Analysis Energy policy, Volume 32, Issue 18,, Technologies Confrence(ISGNT),2015 IEEE Power
Publisher: science direct Pages 2067-2076 December & Energy Society.Publisher: IEEE Vol. PP, Issue: 99,
2004 14 May 2015
[2]Soma ShekaraSreenadh Reddy Depuru, Lingfeng [9]Soma ShekaraSreenadh Reddy Depuru, Lingfeng
Wang, Vijay Devabhaktuni Electricity theft: Wang, Vijay Devabhaktuni High performance
Overview, issues, prevention and a smart meter based computing for detection of electricity theft
approach to control theft Energy policy, Volume 39, International journal of electrical power &energy
Issue 2, Publisher: science direct Pages 1007-1009, systems, PUBLISHER: SCIENCEDIRECT,pages 21-
February 2011 30 volume 47, may 2013
[3]SagarPatil, GopalPawaskar, KirtikumarPatil
Electrical Power Theft Detection and Wireless Meter
Reading International Journal of Innovative Research
in Science, Engineering and Technology Vol 2, Issue Dr. Pramod Sharma, 1Faculty,PG department of
Electronics & Communication, Raja Balwant
4, April 2013
Singh Engineering Technical Campus, Bichpuri
[4]VirendraPandey, Simrat Singh Gill, Amit Agra

SharmaWireless Electricity Theft Detection System Himanshu Gupta, Final year students (EC), Raja
Balwant Singh Engineering Technical Campus,
Using Zigbee TechnologyInternational Journal on Bichpuri Agra.
Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and .
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[5]G. L. Prashanthi, K. V. Prasad Wireless power Megha Sharma, Final year students (EC), Raja
Balwant Singh Engineering Technical Campus,
meter monitoring with power theft detection and Bichpuri Agra.
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IOSR Journal of Electronics and Communication
Engineering (IOSR-JECE) Vol. 9, Issue 6, Ver. I PP
Rohit Singh, Final year students (EC), Raja
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[6]Mr. M.V.N.R.P. Kumar, Mr.Ashutosh Kumar,
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Nanaware Electrical Power Line Theft Detection Ashish Khan, 5 Final year students (EC), Raja
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[7]Pradeep Mittal1 (Assistant Professor), B.Tech
Students of EEE2 Wireless Electricitybilling cum
theft detection systemInternational Research Journal
of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) Volume: 02
Issue: 02|May-2015

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