A Smart Solution to Energy Theft
The Reversed Meter Report is designed to identify those customers who have removed their electric meter and installed it upside down with the intention of running the register in reverse. When the meter is initially removed, an unplanned last-gasp outage message is generated. This is typically followed up by an unplanned power-up restoration message and a new reverse-rotation tamper flag. This sequence is illustrated in Fig. 5. Approximately 20% of the theft identified by the AMR reports is identified with this report.
The Weekend Usage Report is designed to identify customers who regularly tamper with or disable their meters on the weekends. The report highlights meters that exhibit stale usage (no reading after a specific period of time has elapsed) followed by a power-restoration message. Meters are included in the report if this stale usage pattern occurs on consecutive weekends. This sequence is illustrated in Fig. 6 Meters with intermittent communications are eliminated from this report by reviewing the customer's usage on Monday. Meters with communications gaps are expected to register a larger-than-normal volume of usage when communications are restored and the meter “catches up” to reflect weekend usage. Less than 5% of the theft identified by the AMR reports is identified with this report.
As you can see, an AMR system and its associated data analysis tools easily identify these scenarios. Additionally, the reports can be quickly modified to reflect changes in customers' tampering patterns.
PECO's revenue-protection organization is responsible for identifying and resolving theft. Once identified, revenue protection personnel visit the suspected premise and verify the existence of theft. The personnel are trained to resolve most theft situations safely and return the premise to an untampered state. This may require the replacement of the meter or corrections by the customer to their service entrance. Customers who fail to cooperate with theft resolution or who are repeat offenders may have their service disconnected.
In cases where theft has been validated, customers are billed for the time and materials necessary to resolve the theft situation. Historical usage data is used to identify the approximate start of theft. The billing department will then rebill customers back to this start time to reflect appropriate nontheft usage and recover lost revenue. During the pilot, rebilled kilowatt-hour usages were greater than the tampered usages by more than 90%.
Theft detection and resolution has produced real, quantifiable benefits. Losses from theft are conservatively estimated to equal 1% of a utility's total revenue. The recovery of part of this loss results in a direct contribution to the bottom line.
Furthermore, more accurately identifying theft can increase the overall productivity of field forces and billing analysts.
While this article has discussed several known methods of meter tampering, it is of utmost importance that no one attempts to tamper with an electric meter. Any alteration of a meter or service entrance as a result of theft automatically places anyone near that meter at risk. This includes the tamperer, other customers and the utility worker required to maintain electric service. Resolution of tampering lessens the chance of a malfunction or unexpected service situation that can lead to damage of property and injury or death.
Furthermore, all personal safety gear must be used when working on energized electrical equipment, including electric meters. Remember, tampering with an electric meter is dangerous, illegal and unsafe, and drives up costs for all utility customers.
The authors would like to thank John Kratzinger and his Revenue Protection team. They are the front line in PECO's efforts to identify and resolve meter tampering and theft at PECO.
Glenn A. Pritchard is a project manager on Exelon's Meter Reading Technology team, where he specializes in finding new uses for PECO's AMR system and its data across multiple business units. Most recently, Pritchard led an initiative to link PECO's AMR and outage management systems. He has been with Exelon and PECO for 14 years, and his experience ranges from distribution automation to reliability engineering. Pritchard holds a BSEE degree from Clemson University, and is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania and a member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society.
glen.pritchard@exeloncorp.com
Jeff Evans is a project manager on Exelon's Meter Reading Technology team, where he is currently evaluating opportunities to improve and expand the utilization of AMR data across multiple business units. He led the initiative to evaluate and recommend the deployment of AMR technology within the ComEd service territory. Evans has held positions with Exelon Energy Delivery's Account Management, IT and marketing organizations over the past 14 years. He holds a BSME degree from Bradley University and an MBA degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
jeffrey.evans@exeloncorp.com
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