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Anti-Electricity Theft System

Conference Paper · March 2011

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Anti-Electricity Theft System
Engr. Muhammad Shazor 1, Engr. Attiya Baqai 2, Engr. Aamir Ali 1
1
Student, Department of Electronics & Biomedical Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology,
Jamshoro Pakistan
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics & Biomedical Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and
Technology, Jamshoro Pakistan
shahzornishat@hotmail.com ; muet_es@yahoo.com ; aamiralipatoli@yahoo.com
Abstract—The power distribution monitoring is an important
research in electric power systems, and electricity-stealing
defence is one of the chief steps in distribution network
reconstruction. Electricity-Stealing is a long term problem,
however, each power supply department has made huge
investments of manpower and material, the phenomenon of
defending stealing electricity has increased and not abated, and
the method of electricity-stealing is continuously improving, even
some companies appear in selling electricity- Stealing product
and special tools. The behavior of electricity-stealing not only
makes the power industry suffering huge financial losses but also
threatens the main power supply security and reliability.
This Paper deals with the implementation of Electricity
Stealing detection and monitoring System based on a digital
single-phase electric energy meter which not only monitors the
time when electricity-stealing starts but also calculate the
electricity-stealing quantity and image information of electricity-
stealing locale which provides positive proof to handle
lawbreakers with the behavior of electricity-stealing.
Keywords—Electricity-Stealing; long-distance monitoring;
single-phase; MSP430 Single Chip; GSM; digital electric energy
meter .
I. INTRODUCTION
Electricity is the lifeblood of modern era. Going through the
day without seeing the effects of electricity human have
become accustomed to would be a major feat. Electricity is the
basis for most necessary functions throughout the day.
Nothing is possible without electricity but unfortunately
Pakistan is going through the lack of electrical power
throughout the country. While rolling blackouts or load
shedding as it’s locally known has always been a staple of
daily life in Pakistan. In winter the electricity consumption in
Pakistan hovered around 11,000 MW, down from the peak
levels of 17,500 MW seen in summer. This demand was well
within the installed capacity of WAPDA & KESC yet they
were only generating a meager one third (6500MW) of their
maximum capacity during this period leaving a huge gap
between supply and demand. [1] The major reasons behind
this is the lack of money because WAPDA and KESC
revenues are only 60% and 40% are losses which can be
1
categorized as 14 % technical losses such as I2R Losses and
26% Non-Technical Losses such as Metering Losses which in
simple terms means “THEFT”. Therefore a System, based on
a digital single-phase electric energy meter is proposed which
will help us to get rid of this harmful disease which not only
ruins the power supply companies but also Pakistan’s
economical structure.
II. THE ANALYSIS OF ELECTRICITY-STEALING METHOD
The calculation of electricity quantity done by single-phase
electric energy meter is mainly according to the relationship
with voltage, electric current and power-factor angle. If any
factor is changed, electric energy meter slow turning, stalling
and even reversal will be caused so the purpose of electricity
stealing is attained. According to the investigation analysis,
there have been dozens of the electricity-stealing tricks about
single-phase electric energy meter, the methods could be
approximately divided into under voltage, undercurrent,
phase-shifted and difference expansion (DE) to their
principles.
A. Stealing electricity by under voltage technology
Electricity-stealer adopts all kinds of technology to
deliberately change the wire splice of voltage circuit which
metered by electrical energy, or make malfunction of
measuring voltage circuit, voltage curve of pressure loss or
both side of voltage decrease about the electric energy meter
are caused, thus less electric power is measured. Here are
some more common tricks.[2]
1) Unhooking technology of electricity-stealing. Secretly
destroy the lead sealing of electric energy meter, open
voltage hook of terminal in junction box, and make no
electric current through, all using quantity of electricity steal.
2) Loose zero curve technology. Open input zero curve of
meter, ground output zero curve of meter.
3) One fire one ground technology. Take the ground wire as
naught line, generally take the water pipe or caliduct as
ground wire, the risk is bigger.
4) Violated wire connection.
B. Stealing Electricity by Undercurrent Technology
Electricity-stealer adopts all kinds of technology to
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deliberately change the wire splice of electric current circuit that was previously dominated by charge-coupled devices
which is metered by electrical energy, or makes malfunction (CCD) The reason is not only related to economic
of measuring electric current circuit, causes current curve of considerations but also to the potential of realizing devices
the electric energy meter through with no or part of electric with imaging capabilities not achievable with CCDs. For
current, thus less electric power is measured. Here are some applications where the scene light intensity varies over a wide
more common tricks. range, that’s where the dynamic range CMOS image sensors
1) Loop of short electric current, which makes the electric make it attractive in comparison with CCDs. An example is an
energy meter shift slow. outdoor environment where the light intensity varies over a
2) Cross meter to connect wire, added bypass to reel across wide range. These CMOS image sensor ICs can work in both
electric energy meter, which makes no or less electric current single shot (single frame) and video (30 fps) imaging modes,
through, stall or less measurement. providing various resolutions. To minimize external
3) Exchange fire wire and zero wire. components they include internal analog video signal
processing comprising a DPGA (Digital Programmable Gain
C. Stealing Electricity by Phase-Shifted Technology Amplifier) and high speed ADCs along with a serial bus
Electricity-stealer adopts all kinds of technology to interface. These sensors are widely being used in various
deliberately change normal wire connection of electric energy applications such as Barcode, Biometrics, document imaging,
meter, takes use of specifically connecting method of video conferencing etc. In this System, We need the Output
inductance or capacitance to change the normal phase Impulse from the Energy Meter which will be used by the
relationship of voltage and current in the loop of electric MSP430 Microcontroller in order to detect any stealing of
energy meter, thus the electric energy meter shift slow even Electricity occurring so the most appropriate Single Phase
reversal is happened. Here are some more common tricks: Energy Meter is DDS38 as shown in Figure 1.[4]
1) Reverse the in and out fire wire. Make electric current in
the current coil reverse, and the electric energy meter reverse.
2) Make the electric meter reverse by using external power
supply. Adopt hand generator with voltage and current output
or inverter power supply to joint into the electric meter, make
the electric energy meter reverse rapidly.
D. Stealing Electricity by Difference Expansion (DE)
Technology
Electricity-stealer disconnects electric energy meter privately,
adopts all kinds of technology to change inner structural FIGURE 1 DDS38 ENERGY METER
performance of electric energy meter to cause itself error
IV. SYSTEM HARDWARE REALIZATION
increase. Make use of current or mechanical force to destroy
electric energy meter, and change its installation conditions, to Anti-Electricity theft system consists of two parts:
make less electric energy record. A) On-the-Spot Monitoring Facility as shown in Figure 2
B) Remote Terminal Facility as shown in Figure 3
Besides this above four electricity-stealing methods, the worst
is that the user in private draw or connect wire disorderly to A. On-the-Spot Monitoring Facility
steal electricity without reporting meter, this stealing method
with no meter always causes people injuring and fire accident The On-the-Spot Monitoring Facility as shown in Figure 2 is
easily, and so on. They should be enforced and punished made up by Single chip MSP430 Microcontroller, GSM
strictly. Communication module, Image Sensor, Monitoring module of
III. IMPLEMENTATION MATERIALS door switch in the User’s measuring pocket and Standard
Electricity measure module.
The electronic components that can make this food of thought
realizable are MSP430 Single Chip Microcontroller as the
Control core along with GSM terminal TC35i, Image Sensor
and Digital Energy Meter. Inspite of other Microcontrollers
the reason to choose MSP430 Family is Ultra low-Power
Consumption with a high Computational performance at an
economical price. Additional features include High Endurance
& Enhanced Flash Program Memory. The Design
Enhancement feature of MSP430 Microcontrollers makes
them a desirable component in Sensor systems, Stand alone
RF sensor front-end High Performance & Power Sensitive
Applications.[3] In recent years CMOS image sensors have FIGURE 2 ON-THE-SPOT MONITORING FACILITY
started to attract the attention in the field of electronic imaging

Single chip applies low-power-consumption 16-bits MSP430
Microcontroller to realize Image Signal Acquisition, GSM
communication module control, Output frequency signal of
the standard electricity measure module count, and on-off state
of the user’s measuring pocket monitoring.
Image sensor is controlled by the single chip, and takes charge
of collecting image information when the door of measuring
pocket is opened, generally be set as illegal open of the
measuring pocket and continuous collects five pieces of image
information of 320*240 pixels.
GSM communication module realizes the wireless data
transmission by using GSM mobile networks, transports the
data to the remote terminal facility in control room In real
time, these data contain the time of electricity-stealing,
quantity of electricity-stealing, open time of measuring pocket
door, and image information, and so on.
Standard electricity measure module adopts the inner core
components of single-phase electric energy meter, which is
fiducially by the measurement department, to realize the
accurate measurement of the user’s electricity quantity.
B. Remote Terminal Facility
The Remote Terminal Facility as shown in Figure 3 in control
room is made up by Personal computer (PC) and GSM
communication module. The special monitoring software is
installed in PC to realize monitoring quantity of electricity in
one pot and the state of electricity-stealing in long-distance.
FIGURE 3 REMOTE TERMINAL FACILITY
V. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
A. Link Method of On-Spot Monitoring Facility
The Series link method is used between on-spot monitoring
facility and the user’s single-phase electric energy meter,
Standard electricity measure module is connected in series
between the user single-phase electric energy meter and fire
wire, zero wire of enter user, the output of standard electricity
FIGURE 4 FACILITY LINK SCHEMATIC
measure module and the user’s single-phase electric energy
3
meter are separately Photoelectric isolated, then outputted to
the single chip MSP430 Microcontroller to measure
electricity. The link principle is shown in Figure 4
B. Electricity-Stealing Defense Principle of On-Spot
Monitoring Facility
The using circuital voltage and current are monitored by
standard electricity measure module in real time. When loaded
by using electricity, standard electricity measure module
outputs impulse which has a proportional relationship with
power (the number of output impulse per kilowatt), the output
of user single-phase electric energy meter also has a
proportional relationship with power. If electricity stealing is
taken place, the user single-phase electric energy meter cannot
measure accurately, then discrepancies will come up between
the number of output impulse in standard electricity measure
module and user single-phase electric energy meter in unit
time, it is considered as the electricity is stolen when the
discrepancies accumulative total arrives certain level.
When the abnormity of electricity measure impulse in two
paths is monitored by single chip, current time is record, the
starting time of electricity-stealing and alarm information are
transmitted to the remote terminal facility through GSM
network. At the same time, system separately counts the
output impulse of standard electricity measure module and
user electric energy meter. It also calculates the current real
electric consumption and electric energy consumption record
by user electric energy meter. These two difference values are
the number of user electricity-stealing after stealing electricity.
When electricity-stealing is finished, standard electricity
measure module output impulse is in keeping with user single-
phase electric energy meter, system considers electricity-
stealing finish, and transmits the current time and the number
of electricity-stealing to the remote terminal facility through
GSM network.
System makes a monitor to the state of user’s measuring
pocket. When measuring pocket door is illegal opened,
magnetoelectricity which installed in measuring pocket is cut
down by switch due to loose the magnetic field action, and
imparts that measuring pocket door illegal opened to the single
chip, the monitoring system begins to collect five pieces of
image information every one second, which are sent to the
remote terminal facility in control room in the form of
multimedia messaging service through GSM network. If
workers of electricity department need to do a relevant check
to the user’s measuring pocket, they can send the special
command to on-spot monitoring facility by telephone or
remote terminal facility in control room, so alarm is relieved,
the normal overhaul and process are did.
VI. SYSTEM SOFTWARE DESIGNING
The software of on-the-spot monitoring facility adopts C
language, realizes collecting the output impulse signal of
standard electricity measure module and user single-phase
electric energy meter by using two paths of the terminal signal

in external, realizes the control of CMOS image sensor by
parallel port and I/O signals, and also realizes the control of
GSM communication module by using serial port. Figure 5
gives out software control flow.
FIGURE 5 SOFTWARE FLOW BLOCK DIAGRAM
After system is powered on, firstly the initialization work of
single chip memory and each module are carried out; the
initialization parameters of each memory and functional
module are set up. Later, the system will separately judge the
state of receive data of GSM communication module; the door
of measuring pocket; and two paths of impulse signal, once
the change of each state is tested, the corresponding function
subprogram will be run, they conclude the command of
receiving data, images acquirement and alarm when the door
of measuring pocket is opened, computation about electricity
quantity and the state of electricity-stealing, GSM alarms
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remotely when electricity-stealing and memory of the quantity
of electricity-stealing are happened, and so on.
CONCLUSION
Due to the kind of electricity-stealing and actual demand of
electricity-stealing defending, and based on a digital single-
phase electric energy meter, the proposed system which
realizes monitoring the time of electricity-stealing occur and
finish, offering accurate compute of electricity-stealing
quantity, collecting image information of electricity-stealing,
and remote alarm function based on GSM network. It turns out
that, the system can accurate monitors the behavior of
electricity-stealing, giving alarm prompt in time, reduces
losses of electricity-stealing to the minimum, decreases
country property loss. In addition, system offers a solving
method to the data of meter reading.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
All the heartiest gratitude is bestowed to ALLAH Almighty
who make us enable to grow, groom, progress and avail such
opportunities and it is HIS blessings that I am able to present
my knowledge that I gained and my experience through this
research paper.
This paper would not have been possible without the
contributions and support of Engr. Mohsin Siraj and My all
group fellows. After this I am thankful to my Parents for their
support and courage.
REFERENCES
[1] http://pakistaniat.com/2009/01/06/electricity-crisis-in-pakistan/
[2] http://www.mediamob.co.kr/infoland/frmView.aspx?list=blog&id=2515
81&page=1#PageTop
[3] Texas Instrument MSP 430 User Guide
[4] http://sanfengmeter.en.made-in-
china.com/product/ebqEaxPlYDkX/China-Single-Phase-Din-Rail-
Electronic-KWH-Meter-DDS38-.html