14-11-2012, 02:39 PM
How to Identify Electricity Theft in Apartments without Hardware or Software Investments
ABSTRACT
Utility companies estimate that electricity theft costs them over a billion dollars in annual revenues in the United States. A significant amount of electricity theft is due to meter tampering by apartment tenants. This paper will describe how meter tampering in apartments can be identified easily and cost effectively without additional investments in hardware or software. Violators can be detected remotely within a few days and be given an opportunity to correct the situation or face prosecution.
THEFT IS ILLEGAL and DANGEROUS
Electricity theft, an ongoing problem for all electricity providers, is punishable by jail time, a fine or both in the United States. Most cases of electricity theft occur when violators physically alter the internal mechanism of their electric meters, causing the electricity to bypass the meter and not be recorded. As a result, violators are not charged for the total number of kilowatt-hours actually used, causing lost revenue for the electricity providers. In addition, tampering with live electricity inside a meter is dangerous and could result in a fire, shock or even death to the perpetrator. Utility staff could also be injured when later repairing the meter.
THEFT IDENTIFICATION METHODS
These are some of the more common methods of identifying electricity theft: Financial Rewards - Utility companies encourage consumers to report electricity theft, sometimes offering big rewards for information leading to conviction of anyone stealing electricity. Unfortunately, most cases are never identified in the apartment industry due to lack of timely information. 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. This labor-intensive, manual process has little chance of success given that the apartment industry averages 70% turnover of tenants annually.
Meter Readers - Utility meter readers typically suspect that electricity theft is taking place when they find a broken meter tag or other signs of tampering. But as more utility companies outsource the meter reading function to third parties, training meter readers to detect theft is becoming more difficult and less efficient. In addition, third party meter readers do not read disconnected meters.
IMPACT OF ELECTRICITY THEFT
BluTrend recently conducted a study comparing utility meter data with tenant data for four apartment owners with a total of 30,367 apartment units in de-regulated Texas markets. For 2007, we found 230 instances of meter disconnects that occurred after a CSA violation. A CSA violation takes place when a new tenant moves into an apartment with a Continuous Service Agreement (CSA) and fails to enroll for electricity service under his name, as the lease requires. CSA violations ultimately cost apartment owners millions of dollars in additional electricity expenses that are actually the responsibility of their tenants. To minimize this cost, apartment owners are forced to disconnect electricity to units with a CSA violation. However, they usually are unaware of what often happens next—meter tampering to get free electricity. Based on the results of our study, we estimate that electricity providers are losing in excess of $186 million a year due to meter tampering after a CSA disconnect in the United States.