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DESIGN OF AN AUTOMATED ELECTRICITY THEFT DETECTION, NOTIFICATION,

AND PREVENTION SYSTEM THROUGH ANALYSIS OF AMPERAGE DRAW

READINGS

A Thesis Proposal Presented to


The Faculty of College of Engineering
Laguna State Polytechnic University
San Pablo City Campus

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Cindy A. Alcantara
Ana Lorraine P. Casal
Darren P. Dino
Joreen Ann C. Sanchez
Kathleen Mae E. Vista

June 2021
Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Nowadays, electricity plays a significant role in humans’ life that we

cannot envision a world without it. It has numerous applications in our

everyday life; however, some people are abusing the use of electricity by

doing electricity theft. Based on Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks,

electricity theft refers to when an individual deliberately consumes

electricity without lawfully paying for it. This could range from bypassing the

electricity meter, stealing electricity directly from our network or knowingly

using electricity without being registered to an electricity supplier.

One kind of electricity theft is direct hooking from the line wherein the

customer connects to a power wire that runs some distance before the

meter. This energy usage is unmeasured and obtained by switches or

without. Another one is known as bypassing the energy meter. In this kind

of theft, the energy meter's input and output terminals are connected,

preventing the energy from being registered. A variation of electricity theft

involves the injection of foreign element in the energy meter by installing a

circuit inside the meter to allow the meter to be over-involved and

manipulated via abroad at any moment. Because the meter is usually

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correct unless the remote is turned on, this type of change can avoid

external examination attempts. A sort of electricity theft involving physical

obstruction is to finish an electromechanical meter with a revolving

element. To prevent the disc from freely moving, foreign material is inserted

inside the meter. A slower revolving disk indicates that less energy is being

consumed. Last of the kinds of electricity theft is the ESD attack on electric

meter that is done on an electronic meter to cause latent or permanent

harm. Only high-end meters perform correctly in terms of detection.

Non-technical losses have now become a global problem for

electric providers that it costs them as much as $96 billion annually. One of

the main contributors to these losses is loss due to electricity theft. It is

common in many countries, especially in the Philippines where a

considerable amount of energy is stolen every year, particularly in the slums

of Manila where the utility’s dedication to eradicate these thefts have been

quite costly but inadequate. Those who were caught stealing electricity

have been simply re-establishing their connections afterwards.

Combining all these information, the researchers aim to address the

problem by designing an automated electricity theft detection,

notification and prevention system with mobile application and recognition

between hooking and meter tampering through analysis of amperage

draw readings. This allows for the gathering of important details about the

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electricity theft, such as hooking and meter tampering. It may also be a

way for consumers and authorities to be alerted if their electricity line has

been tampered with, as well as a way for linemen to be aware of the form

of theft.

Background of the Study

This study is focused on the design of an automated electricity theft

detection, notification, and prevention system. In the Philippines, electricity

theft is very rampant, and commonly done either at the consumer end

through meter tampering or at the line through illegal hooking. There are

several reports about electricity theft on people living in informal housing

areas, specifically in Manila, where they frequently do spider web wiring

due to poverty, which is why the owner is unaware of their electrical line.

Three residents of Pasay City got caught by the police and personnel

of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) doing illegal tapping of

electricity using telecom wires around 11:00 am, Friday, April 5. Another

example is a 54-year-old “barangay tanod” and 26-year-old compliance

who were arrested in Ilo-ilo for unlawfully selling power connections. The

suspects were held in custody until the filing of charges under the Anti-

Pilferage of Electricity Act and the Theft of Electric Transmission Lines and

Materials Act of 1994.

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Consequently, the Department of the Interior and Local Government

(DILG) has recently just ordered the cops and local government units to

identify and arrest individuals who commit electricity theft. In this study, the

researchers design an automated system that can detect, notify, and

prevent electricity theft through analysis of amperage draw readings. This

study will also show the success rate, sensitivity, and specificity of the theft

recognition mechanism.

Within this paper, the researchers present the capabilities of the

proposed system to make use of a mobile application to record the details

of the consumer including the address to notify the authorities of the

location and manner of theft, whether it happened on the meter or on the

line end. The consumer will also be notified once hooking has been

detected.

In addition to that, the design is equipped with a tapping transformer

for the prevention system which disconnects all legal consumers once theft

is detected, then immediately sends a high voltage pulse to make all illegal

consumers nonoperational.

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Objective of the Study

General Objective

The main purpose of this study is to design an automated electricity

theft detection, notification, and prevention system with mobile

application and recognition between hooking and meter

tampering through analysis of amperage draw readings.

Specific Objectives

The following are the specific objectives of the study:

1. To design an automated system which can detect and locate

electricity theft.

2. To send a high voltage pulse to all illegal consumers through a

tapping transformer.

3. To develop a mobile application to notify the authorities and legal

consumers of the theft.

4. To determine the manner of theft - either by hooking or meter

tampering.

5. To test the performance of the automated electricity theft detection,

notification, and prevention system in terms of success rate,

sensitivity, and specificity of the theft recognition mechanism.

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Significance of the Study

One of the main contributors to the nontechnical power losses is the

loss due to electricity theft. The distribution utility has dedicated resources

for manual inspections and cutting of illegal connections. However, these

inspections often cost more than the value of losses.

As an alternative for these costly inspections, the main idea of

developing this study is to propose a cheap and effective way of

automatically detecting an electricity theft by a current-measuring and

comparing system. Determining the theft location and where it originated

– from the distribution line or the consumer itself would be made easier. This

study is intended to bring an impact and positive change not only to the

consumers but also to the distributors. It is significant as aside from

detecting, it also includes an approach for the prevention of electricity

theft. The study will be beneficial to the following:

To the Community in Slum Areas. Electricity theft mostly happens in slum

areas around the Philippines. Even within the poorest slums, electricity is

almost universally available, which according to statistics, is commonly

stolen. With this study, it is possible to detect which electricity in the area is

pilfered. After sending a high voltage pulse, illegal loads in this area will be

in-operational. Thus, dangerous conditions can be prevented, including

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power outages, system failures, the possibility of fire, injuries, and even

explosions.

To the Electric Power Distribution Utilities. To help the electric power

distribution utilities to avoid electricity losses due to theft of electricity

through hooking on their lines is one of the aims of this study. With this

means, putting an end to the damaging of property and revenue losses to

the utility can be possible. Also, it will be helpful for this sector in providing a

better service for the end-users with the ability to prevent further theft by

sending high voltage pulse to all illegal consumers and by predicting further

thefts through the analysis of the recorded cases.

To the Legal Consumers. Electricity thieves tend to consume more

electricity than legitimate consumers and be wasteful in the way they use

it. Therefore, to resolve this occurrence, this study is intended to promote

safety and equality. It will be beneficial for legal consumers to guarantee

that they are paying for the right amount of electricity that they are

consuming. Detecting and reporting illegal electrical connections will help

to reduce payable bills. Legal consumers will also be notified of the theft. In

this way, they can be aware of the profile and location of the thief. These

pieces of information are useful in reporting to the authorities and punishing

those who are lawfully guilty.

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To the Future Researcher. This study is developed with the idea of bringing

a positive impact as a reference for the research relating to it.

Definition of Terms

The terms listed below are described for the future readers’ further

understanding:

Amperage Draw Reading. It is the reading of the amount of current flowing

through the circuit.

Bypassing. It is also called meter tampering; it is when you make

the meter to stop functioning or under registering your electricity

consumption.

Consumer Load Profile. It is the variation in the consumer’s electrical load

versus time that power producers use to plan how much electricity should

be made available at a given time.

Electricity. It is a type of energy that powers motors and other devices that

produce light or heat.

Electricity Theft. It is the practice of using energy without accounting for it

legally. This can include taking power directly from someone’s network,

bypassing the energy meter, or intentionally consuming electricity without

being licensed with an electricity provider.

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Energy Meter. It is a device that calculates how much electricity a

household, buildings, or electrically driven equipment uses.

Hooking. It is an unlawful activity of direct tapping from the wire. The user

plugs into a power line from a position ahead of the energy meter. This

energy use is unmeasured and can be obtained with or without switches.

Non-technical Losses. It refers to the losses caused by actions external to

the power system such as electricity theft, non - payment by customers,

and accounting and record – keeping errors.

Power Consumption. It refers to the amount of electrical energy used to run

something, such as machines, per unit of time. The watts and kilowatts are

measured.

Tapping Transformer. usage of taps to change the voltage ratio of a

transformer such that the secondary voltage remains constant. Taps on the

primary of large power transformers are used to compensate for any input

voltages that are too high or too low. The minimal line voltage is usually set

for these tap connections at the plant.

Scope and Limitation

The center of this study is to design a prototype capable of

automatically detecting, notifying, and preventing electricity theft. The

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system will be using amperage draw readings from the current sensor in the

distribution box and in the individual electric meter to recognize theft. The

authorities and legal consumers will both have access to the mobile

application which records consumer information upon installment of the

meter and notifies them of the theft. A tapping transformer will also be used

to send a high voltage pulse to all illegal consumers. The proposed system

is limited only in detecting the two most common kinds of theft which are

hooking, and meter tampering.

Conceptual Framework

INPUT

Hardware:
1. Commercial
PROCESS
Electric Meter
2. Current Sensor Design the
3. Microcontroller structure and OUTPUT
4. GSM/GPRS schematic Automated
Module diagram for the Electricity Theft
5. Tapping construction of the Detection,
Transformer prototype. Notification, And
w/Relay Construct based Prevention System
Software: on the design to
1. Global Website produce a
2. Web-based prototype.
Mobile Application
3. Database
(MySQL)

Figure 1 - Conceptual Paradigm

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For the input, much work is needed to be done for both the hardware

and the software. The system can detect electricity theft through the

hardware which includes the customized electric meter and distributor box

containing the GSM/GPRS module, current sensor, and microcontroller,

and the software which includes the development of the global website,

mobile application, and database. The tapping transformer with relay will

be used for the prevention part of the system.

For the process, the researchers will initially acquire all the materials

needed and check for their functionality. All circuit diagrams will be

designed before the whole fabrication process. The PCB designs of all the

components are then needed to be integrated to a single PCB design in

accordance with our customization. As the device is being constructed,

the program and application will be coded accordingly.

After the canvassing and gathering of materials, and all these

processes, the automated electricity theft detection, notification, and

prevention system will be completed and be ready for testing.

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Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

In this chapter, the researchers discussed some of the works, studies,

articles, and literatures that can be beneficial to the design and

conceptualization of the project. This will be functional for the future

researchers to get ideas and concepts for feasible innovations.

Electricity Theft

Electricity theft, according to Zheng et. al. (2017), is detrimental to

the power grid. It combines the flow with the energy flow, and the smart

grid can solve the issue of electricity theft by using the vast data produced

by the smart grid. Based on their research, the smart grid is useful in

detecting power theft because it tracks the energy traffickers' irregular

energy consumption patterns. However, there is also a disadvantage since

the current system has a low detection accuracy. Overall, their research

concluded that the methods and models they developed would achieve

superior performance in detecting electricity theft.

In addition, theft of electricity can be accomplished by wiring a line

from the power supply to the location where it is required, circumventing

the meter. This method is widespread in poor residential areas in South Asian

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countries, where those who seek power may not have lines assigned to

them and may not be able to pay if they are connected. In Pakistan, this

practice is known as the “kunda system”, and it is widely acknowledged by

power administrators as a part of life in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The

electrical authority in Soweto, South Africa, found 6 tons of "spiderweb"

cable used for such connections in raids over the course of six months

(Campbell, 1999).

Detection And Prevention of Electricity Theft

Mutupe et al., (2017) discussed a system that detects electricity theft

remotely, and a mechanism for curbing electricity theft. The study claimed

that monitoring of electric current supplied from the distribution transformer

must be done at both on the consumer’s side and distribution transformer’s

side. To determine whether there is a theft occurrence, the distinction in

electrical current observed from the consumer and distribution side is used.

The two-monitoring unit’s communication is based on the utilization of

wireless technology. The reporting of the theft in this project study is

established using the Wi-Fi space.

Similarly, the smart power theft detection system by Mucheli et. al.

(2019) is also a current measuring and comparing system used to detect

power theft. Current is measured in both the distributor box and the electric

meter and then posted to a server database using GSM/GPRS module. The

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proposed system is hidden such that exceeding the threshold value set for

the current indicates theft. The hardware included a customized electric

meter and distributor box while the software included a website and a

mobile application. This system also adopted a location detection and

notification system for the concerned authority.

On the other hand, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been widely used

in the design of theft detection systems. Ogu and Chukwudebe (2017)

developed a cost-effective electricity theft detection and prevention

system using this technology. The Arduino MKR1000 Microcontroller board is

used as a bi-functional element to coordinate the activities of the system,

as well as to connect the system to a Wi-Fi network and the internet

afterward. In detecting whether the sensitive part of a meter is opened by

a person or not, a Passive Infrared Sensor as the sensory element is

presented. A Solid-State Relay with zero-crossing capability is applied to

connect the loads to the distribution network. The IoT Analytic platform is

also utilized for the creation of a webpage. This platform is used for the

meter status to be visualized by the power company on the internet.

Likewise, Leninpugalhanthi et. al. (2019) also implemented the IoT

technology but instead of using Arduino, they designed a real time system

with a fixed threshold voltage and current set at the Raspberry Pi. Whenever

the voltage level increases, then power theft is detected. This system is also

used to find unauthorized electrical line tapping using wireless data

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transmission and receiving techniques. IoT can be used for various

applications for energy monitoring and saving by helping in demand side

management and various area of energy production.

To eradicate power theft, it must be identified. In Manila, Philippines,

combatting illegal connections through manual inspections often cost

more than the value of losses due to electricity theft. To enable

unsupervised monitoring, Andaya et. al. (2019) proposed a theft

recognition system with magnitude determination mechanism for service

conductors of elevated metering centers. A microcontroller-based

prototype was utilized as input and ZigBee protocol was used for wireless

communication. The researchers were able to measure 100% sensitivity,

specificity, and success rate. The system was also found to have excellent

usability and increasing positive net benefit with risk.

Moreover, ElProCus (2013) stated in his study about energy meter

tampering, wherein a simple combination of an IR led and a photodiode

can be used to detect tampering. When traditional electromechanical

energy meters are utilized, this device is employed. The IR LED illuminates a

photodiode on the shaft of the rotating disk on the meter. The photodiode's

output normally sends a logic low signal to the microcontroller. In case that

the energy meter is damaged, either the power source to the organization

of the house is turned off or the energy meter is replaced. Installing an

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electronic energy meter on the load side and sending the meter readings

wirelessly to the distribution unit accomplishes this.

Once theft is identified, it must be prevented. The three-phase

distribution protection and theft detection system by Pawar et al., (2016)

proposed a method to secure against theft using Zigbee module. This study

compromises two subsystems. The first subsystem is where the distributed

voltage and current through transformer windings are measured and

detected. After determining whether these measured electrical

parameters are above or below the formerly measured levels, the system

will automatically operate the circuit breaker. The second subsystem is the

one responsible for distinguishing theft if any occurred along the distribution

line or network. In this system, consumed units of the consumers are

measured. Also, the system will detect theft occurrence if the total units of

any consumer bypass its energy meter in a certain area. This system

includes a GSM module for sending information to the related electrical

office.

However, in the report of Chen et al. (2018), they said that current

techniques have low detection accuracy, which is why they introduced

two novel data mining techniques that can help identify electrical thieves

more easily. They claim that electricity theft by tampering and smart meters

is on the rise because electricity theft becomes more well-known, making

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it difficult to track. The first technique is the maximum information coefficient

(MIC), which detects thieves that appear average in shape. The second

technique is clustering by quick search and find of density peaks (CFSFDP),

which detects thefts by identifying abnormal users within thousands of

profiles. Their research demonstrates that the combined approach

performs well.

Based on Bhalshankar and Thorat (2017), Maharashtra's

industrialization is continuing to grow, but the state is raising the tariff rate to

keep up with the demand. As a result, the researchers implemented a

method to prevent electrical power theft using AMI (advanced metering

infrastructure) which is the first fixed computing network available

anywhere during that time. The AMI is the device that keeps track of real-

time power usage, bringing accountability to the electricity sector.

Researchers believe it could be used as a drone-operated tool for direct

hooking theft.

Algorithm-Based Systems

The theft detection algorithm by Shahid et. al. (2019), is a novel

approach to detect and prevent electricity theft. In Pakistan, a developing

country experiencing power losses due to electricity theft, there are also

plenty of serious issues that have risen because of the theft, including

financial losses, which pose a serious threat to the country's economic

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stability. The researchers’ algorithm detects electricity theft in the consumer

line, also known as meter tampering, and distribution line, also known as

hooking, using consumer load profiling. When they discovered the fraud

and disconnected all legal consumers, thus sending a high voltage pulse

to all distribution lines, rendering all illegal consumers inoperable.

On the other hand, Khan et. al. (2020) presented a system based on

the supervised machine learning techniques and real electricity

consumption data. The electricity data are pre-processed using

interpolation, three sigma rule and normalization methods. Adasyn

algorithm is then utilized to address the class imbalance problem in the

distribution of labels in the electricity consumption data. The balanced

data are fed into a Visual Geometry Group (VGG-16) module to detect

abnormal patterns in electricity consumption and lastly, a Firefly Algorithm

based Extreme Gradient Boosting (FA-XGBoost) technique is exploited for

classification. Simulations were conducted to show the performance of

their system and results showed that it is superior to other state-of-the-art

models in terms of handling the large time series data and accurate

classification.

Solomon Nunnoo and Joseph C. Attachie (2011) have also

produced an algorithm for the planning of electricity theft monitoring

system which allows violators to be detected at a distant location. It begins

with the analysis of losses in power systems. Their paper discussed the

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varied types of theft practices, methodology for detection of theft,

generating the theft case algorithm using the backtracking algorithm

method and communicating these data from the buyer premises to the

substation using the prevailing power lines.

Non-Technical Loss

The smart meter-based approach of Depuru et. al. (2011) stressed out

that the non-technical loss (NTL) during transmission of power may be

a major problem in developing countries and it has been very difficult for

the utility companies to detect and fight the people answerable for theft.

Electricity theft forms a serious chunk of NTL. These losses affect quality of

supply, increase load on the generating station, and affect tariff imposed

on genuine customers. This paper discussed the factors that influence the

consumers to steal electricity. In sight of those ill effects, various methods for

detection and estimation of the theft are discussed. This paper proposed

an architectural design of smart meter, external control station, harmonic

generator, and filter circuit. Motivation of this work was to detect illegal

consumers, and conserve and effectively utilize energy. NTL within

the distribution feeder is computed by external control station from the

sending end information of the distribution feeder. If a substantial amount

of NTL is detected, harmonic generator is operated at that feeder for

19
introducing additional harmonic component for destroying appliances of

the illegal consumers.

Islam et. al. (2008) also mentioned in their paper that power

distribution loss costs our country a serious amount in annual revenues. This

is often because distribution of electricity involves significant

technical also as non-technical losses. There are ways to calculate and fix

technical losses, but illegal consumption of electricity takes a considerable

part of the revenue as a non-technical loss. The concept is to detect

unauthorized tapping on distribution lines by identifying the approximate

location of tapping withing the implementation is of a distribution network

of power supply system. Wireless data transmission and receiving technique

and meter reading technique are going to be utilized in the lowest possible

cost to determine the tapped electrical line and notify the respective

authority for inspection.

According to Tarannu et. al. (2017), an additional tapping is

completed on the distribution line this within the distribution line

increases which ends in losses i.e., a large amount of power is

wasted because the losses. From the calculations we observed

that because the value of tapped load is increased in any phase, the

current of that phase increases. The non-technical loss because of the

unmetered connection is extremely large and because of the behavior

of many of us in society the non-technical losses occur within the great

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amount. To forestall this, state governments should draw plans to

supply backing to the utilities for installations of meters on a minimum of all

the distribution transformers in a very phased manner, and to think of

schemes for incentive awards to utilities who are ready to reduce T&D

losses beyond a specific pre-fixed limit.

Additionally, BRDC (2000) states that billing discrepancies can arise

from a variety of reasons. Some power companies may be ineffective at

measuring the amount of electricity consumed, resulting in an unintentional

higher or lower figure than the accurate figure. Over time, the inadvertent

inconsistencies may even out. Employees could be persuaded to enter a

lower number on the meter than what is displayed. There are several

employees who are one having dirty job in the company wherein they

moved the decimal points of the total bill that should have been paid.

Consequently, the security of an electric power grid can never be

guaranteed. In many systems, the quantity of theft is negligible (1–2% of

total electricity generated). However, due to the massive amount of

electricity distributed, the financial loss is significant. The general agreement

in the United States appears to be that theft costs between 0.5 percent and

3.5 percent of annual gross profits. That may seem insignificant until you

remember that US electricity revenues in 1998 were in the $280 billion level.

As a result, between $1 and $10 billion in electricity has been taken. (Nesbit,

2000)

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All these research and new knowledge about electricity theft and

different detection systems that have been studied and developed by

other scientists and engineers have deepened the knowledge and

understanding of the proponents regarding the theories underlying these

principles. All these related literature and studies are necessarily used to

develop and design the automated electricity theft detection, notification,

and prevention system.

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Chapter III

DESIGN METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES

This chapter covers the detailed explanation of the methodology

that is to be used, as well as the procedures to be taken to make this project

complete and working. Many methodologies or findings from this field

mainly generated into journal for others to take advantages and improve

as upcoming studies.

Methodology

The researchers formulated ideas concerning electricity theft

throughout the design stage in order to develop a research project for an

automated electricity theft detection, notification, and prevention system.

They studied at how sensors and other industrial monitoring devices are

used and how they work. The data and information they obtained after

learning the required functionality to better the researchers' understanding

of these concepts. They identified the materials that might be used and

devised a proper layout for an electricity theft detection, notification, and

prevention system that is appropriate for the prototype.

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Research Design

The research design to be used in this study is the quantitative

research design. It is a procedural design that enables the proponents to

qualify the relationships between those variables which may affect the

result of the study. It allows the research to determine the sensitivity,

specificity, and success rate of the theft recognition mechanism.

System Design

TAPPING TRANSFORMER

Figure 3.1 - Block diagram of the Customized Detection System

A current sensing module ACS712 will be placed in both the

distribution box and the meter installed in the house. The current from the

sensor will be fed into a micro-controller and the data will be sent to the

authorized database through the GSM/GPRS module. The data will then be

compared and if the difference is more than the provided threshold, meter

24
tampering will be detected, and the authorities will be notified of the

location of the theft; while if there is a difference between the amperage

draw readings from the distribution box and the electric meter, hooking will

be detected, and both the authorities and legal consumers will be notified.

Figure 3.2 - Block diagram of the Theft Prevention System

Additionally, once theft is detected, the system will disconnect all

legal consumers and send a high voltage pulse to the illegal consumers

through the line using the tapping transformer to make them

nonoperational.

Design Procedure

The step-by-step procedure to be done to design the automated

electricity theft detection, notification, and prevention system is as follows:

25
Step 1: Brainstorming, Planning and Discussion of Ideas to come-up

with the significant title. Defining a problem and deriving a definite solution

to the said problem is the first thing to be done to have a concrete

foundation in the study.

Step 2: Research, Analysis and Conceptualization of the Discussed

Idea. Providing additional ideas to support and strengthen main idea for

this study. Designing of the actual prototype and its schematic diagram

and program flow chart. Also, to canvas for the materials needed in the

construction of the prototype.

Step 3: Construction of Prototype. Gathering the necessary materials

based in the designed schematic diagram, developing the program

needed, and fabrication of the chassis for the prototype.

Step 4: Testing, Data analyzing, and Evaluation of the Prototype. The

prototype will undergo in a series of testing and record the data to be

analyzed and evaluated for documentation purposes.

The design stage shows the gradual process in preparing the design

project. It contains a thorough process in requirement stage design stage,

implementation stage, verification stage and maintenance stage.

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Hardware Components

The following are the hardware components to be utilized in the

development of the automated electricity theft detection, notification,

and prevention system.

Hardware Components Implementation

It is a device that measures how much

electricity a home, business, or other

electrically powered device consumes.

The utility rate per watt-hour is determined

by the number of times the meter wheel

Commercial Electric Meter revolves, which is reflected in the final bill.

The electric meter, which is usually

provided by the power company and

measures your electricity consumption in

kilowatt-hours, is also known as a watt-hour

meter.

A current sensor detects the current

flowing through a wire and generates a


Current Sensor
proportional output by using the magnetic

field to detect the current. It can passively

27
measure current without disrupting the

circuit in any way.

In an embedded system, a microcontroller

is a small integrated circuit that controls a

Microcontroller single operation. It is a single-chip

computer that contains a CPU, memory,

and input/output peripherals.

A GSM or GPRS module is a chip or circuit

that allows a mobile device or a computer

to communicate with a GSM or GPRS


GSM/GPRS Module
system. It is a module that can be

integrated into a piece of equipment, a

piece of embedded hardware.

It is a transformer mechanism that permits

variable turn ratios to be selected in


Tapping Transformer
discrete steps. This is accomplished by
w/Relay
connecting to several taps located along

the primary or secondary winding.

28
System Flow Chart

Figure 3.3 – System Flowchart

Figure 3.3 shows the flowchart of the system. It also shows how the

prototype works. The amperage draw readings will be collected in the

server where it will also be compared for differences. If there are no

abnormalities in the readings, the system will go back to reading the data

from the distribution box and the electric meter. Once theft is detected, the

authorities and/or the legal consumer will be notified of the location of the

theft and the system will proceed to the prevention part where the tapping

transformer will send a high voltage pulse to the illegal consumer/s.

29
Research Instrument

To get the appropriate data needed, the researchers will have

questionnaires with (3) parts. Part 1 will ask for the profile of consumer. The

tool for profile was made by the researcher, it will determine the name,

gender, age, civil status, and average monthly electric consumption.

Part 2 of the research instrument is for the authorities of an electric

company, gathers profile such as their name, gender, age, civil status,

name of the company and position to the company.

Finally, for the Part 3 of the questionnaire, there will be an answer

sheet with its questions about their experience regarding the theft

recognition mechanism and their level of satisfaction with the system.

Performance Testing

The performance test of the automated electricity theft detection,

notification, and prevention system will be done by comparing the

amperage draw readings from the current sensor in the distribution box and

the electric meter. A decision matrix for testing of the theft recognition

mechanism will be used to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and success

rate of the prototype. There will also be a mobile application testing to

check if the notification part of the system is working well. Lastly, the

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tapping transformer will be tested for the prevention part if it accurately

sends a high voltage pulse to illegal consumers once theft is detected.

Actual Design of the Device

Figure 3.4 – Expected Actual Design of the Device

The expected actual design of the automated electricity theft

detection, notification, and prevention system shows the complete

operating hardware diagram of the project. The figure displays that each

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consumer transmits calculated amperage draw reading. The reading

transmitted by consumers in the electric meter will be compared with that

of the reading in the distribution box. After comparing the two values, the

theft will then be detected as well as the theft's location. For prevention,

the legal consumers will be disconnected from the distribution line.

Afterward, a high voltage pulse will be applied to make the illegally

connected loads nonoperational and restrict further electricity theft.

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