Design of Electric Meter with Double Connected Data Capture System for Energy Theft Monitoring

Power utilities around the globe are facing dual challenges in generation and distribution of electricity. The common challenge in electrical distribution system is electricity theft. Electricity theft in electrical distribution system can be done through illegal connections of hook-ups from the distribution pole grids and meter tampering. Most power utilities are now migrating their operations into modern digitalized platforms as they used to rely on the old systems to carry out and monitor their commercial activities such as connectivity activity, itinerary scheduling, meter and device management, etc. The main focus of this paper is to design a real-time monitoring system that is able to detect electricity theft in distribution systems. The real-time monitoring system is designed using smart meters and Arduino Uno microcontrollers. A GSM technology (Global System for Mobile Communication - technology) is used for communication, and cloud storage is created to store the meter data. Simulations of the real-time monitoring system are done using Proteus Design Suite v.8.10 SP3 software. This proposed system is able to measure and compare any power imbalance in the electrical distribution system.