Power theft is a problem which has been plaguing a power utility a problem which has been plaguing a power utility since it’s service and accounts for a significant amount of high transmission and distribution losses in our country.
Power theft is defined as an intentional attempt by a person to reduce or avoid the money he owes to the utility for his energy consumption.
Any registered consumer or unauthorized non-consumer may commit pilferage of energy.
The most prominent sources in this genre are:
- Electricity theft
- Nonpayment of electricity bill
Popular ways of power theft are :
- Meter tempering
- Direct hooking
Meter tempering
Some of the various methods of meter tempering for power theft are :
- Placing the powerful magnet on the meter.
- Bypassing of meters.
- Disturbing the disc rotation by interring some material externally.
- Stopping the meter by remote control.
- Mechanical jerk.
- Change in meter terminals, etc
Direct hooking
- This is one of the most common a wells as a visible form of commercial loss.
- In this method of power theft, antisocial elements tap the bare conductors of L.T feeder or tampered service wire to make unauthorized and unmetered consumption.
- It is mostly found in rural areas . on occasions like festivals, wedding ceremonies, etc, and in the areas which are away from normal residential areas hooking is mostly observed.