To Catch A (Power) Thief!

Benja WilsonSupervisor of System MeteringMid-Carolina Electric CooperativeLexington, South Carolina February 21, 2013

North Carolina / South Carolina Revenue Protection Council2013 Training Seminar & Conference

Power Theft in AmericaPower Theft in America

Very little field research in this area Surveyed utilities normally expect less

than 1% theft Utilities that assign equipped field

resources consistently find more theft than expected and achieve about a 6:1 payback in Revenue Assurance/Protection (El Paso Electric and Georgia Power)

Anecdotal: theft increasing now that visits from staff decreasing with AMI deployment

Cost of Energy Theft in the USCost of Energy Theft in the US

Past Meter Tampering at MCECPast Meter Tampering at MCEC

Occasional self reset meters The standard bypasses in meter

jaws Broom straws through holes in

meter cover (pre smart meter) Meters turned upside down External jumpers around meter

Recent Power Theft at MCECRecent Power Theft at MCEC

Thefts started getting more innovative: Underground service to meter

tapped to serve shed, swimming pool, and yard lights (electrical contractor)

Spaghetti Junction?

OH Triplex

Conduit StretcherConduit Stretcher Needed?

OH Triplex

Recent Power Theft at MCECRecent Power Theft at MCEC(Cont’d)(Cont’d)

Thefts started getting more innovative: Underground service tapped to feed

shed, swimming pool, and yard lights Mop handle bypass to 30A outlet

on meter service pole

New Use for Old New Use for Old Mop Handles!Mop Handles!

And Old Dryer Plugs!And Old Dryer Plugs!

Chasing the “Big Boys”!Chasing the “Big Boys”!

In October 2011 things changed dramatically with a call from the Sheriff’s Department - an indoor marijuana grow house was discovered and reported to us

– Like having power

theft on steroids!

Underground Service Tapped to Underground Service Tapped to Feed Grow HouseFeed Grow House

4/0 UG Triplex

NEC Compliant?NEC Compliant?

How does your garden grow?How does your garden grow?

How Did We First Find the Grow How Did We First Find the Grow Houses?Houses?

Law enforcement brought 6 out of 13 cases we have had so far

We found the remainder by: Chasing the names Chasing failed transformers in area Chasing transformers that had fuses

blown in area Chasing the missing OH services that

had been replaced with URD

USING AMI DATA TO FIND UNMETERED REVENUE

AMI LOW USAGE AMI LOW TO ZERO USAGE AMI USAGE ON INACTIVE OR CUT

ACCTS. AMI NEGATIVE USAGE AMI READING WITH MULTIPLIER

CHANGES AMI NA & RO CODES AMI RM & SP CODES

AMI LOW TO ZERO USAGE

Active Accounts with new low usage 8 days ago and zero usage for the past 7 days

METER AMR_MODULE C READING1 USAGE ACCT_NO NAME LOC_TYPE USAGE_RANGE CUT_DATE

--------- ---------- - ---------- ------- ---------- -------------------- ----------------- ------------ -------- 36209179 7423475 R 20188 0 3400310082 RICHLAND TERRACE APT APARTMENT 2 - 5

Active Accounts with new low usage two days ago and zero usage yesterday and today

METER AMR_MODULE C READING1 USAGE ACCT_NO NAME LOC_TYPE USAGE_RANGE CUT_DATE

--------- ---------- - ---------- ------- ---------- -------------------- ----------------- ------------ -------- 33839838 9046385 H 15820 160 5300732951 DAYTON ODELL SHEALY CHICKEN HOUSE 520 - 960

87785272 8343261 C 33025 1 6901812069 JAMES D JONES OFFICE BUILDING 2 - 30

33402365 10269216 C 14259 0 4201361020 DANIEL R JONES OUTBUILDING 2 - 7

36209116 7423364! R 12861 0 3400238072 LORRAINE C MURRAY APARTMENT 31 - 54

36342593 7934367 S 2955 0 5800267660 EPISCOPAL CH OF ST S CHURCH 1 - 2

87772607 8323849 H 5913 0 5300876421 DARYL R BUZHARDT IRRIGATION 1 - 3

87780835 8331845 E 88606 0 4500513105 GLENDA ASBILL SINGLE WIDE 2 - 5

87783752 8340703! F 44775 0 4701437681 JUNE ASHLEY VINSON SINGLE WIDE 7 - 80

8 rows selected.

AMI NA, RO, RM, SP CODES

14-FEB-13

Readings with code NA, RO, RM or SP for two or more days:

C MAP_LOC METER AMR_MODULE CD ACCT_NO STATUS LOC_ADDR TRANSF PHA FEEDER - ---------- ---------- ---------- -- ------------ ------ ---------------------- ------------ --- ------ B 195-00-054 33402399 7246265 NA 8700586010 A 1008 BACKMAN RD 195-00-033 A S10C6 B 195-33-003 31450740 4967813 NA 8900319102 A 760 OLD BARNWELL RD 195-33-017 ABC S10C5 D 274-03-009 87770918 8325164 NA 9200828740 I 237 MACEDON DR 274-03-005 A S16C3 E 252-05-002 87780578 8336041 NA 4500512005 A 2799 CALKS FERRY RD 252-05-009 C S12C2 J 105-99-002 33407116 7413865 NA 5401916505 A HOLLYWOOD RD 105-99-002 A S5C1 R 114-49-075 87782259 8338359 NA 1100079024 A 242 ROYAL TOWER RD 114-49-011 C S3C1 33414826 7422498 RO 89226984 10332481 RO

8 rows selected.

USING AMI DATA TO FIND LOSS REVENUE

HOURLY USAGE > DAILY USAGE TRANSFORMER TOP 20 HOURLY USAGE MISSED HOURLY USAGE RATE I CONTROL PERIODS ACCTS W/NO USAGE MONTHLY AVERAGE COMPARISON

MONTHLY AVERAGE COMPARISON

Report takes the average of spring and/or fall months and compares to an average of summer and/or winter months

MONTHLY AVERAGE COMPARISON

This report was run for daily average for April & October and compared to daily average for June & July

The daily average was 18 KWH for the April & October Period

The daily average was 19.5 KWH for the June & July Period

A Very Small Difference for the two periods

WHAT IS MISSING?

AIR CONDITIONING LOAD

THE DAILY AVERAGE USAGE IS VIRTUALLY NO DIFFERENT FROM SPRING AND FALL TO THE SUMMER

What Was NeededWhat Was Needed

A quick, easy, unobtrusive, clamp on measurement device for primary voltage

Early investigations lead us to devices that did not measure at low enough current levels with sufficient accuracy

What We FoundWhat We Found(via CRN)(via CRN)

Awesense Raptor 1% accuracy from 0.1 – 400 Amps Extendo Stick install and removal Quickly and easily installed out

of sight Wireless mesh connectivity reads

all devices wirelessly with wireless connection to one

Wireless Communication with Wireless Communication with USB USB Receiver and Field ApplicationReceiver and Field Application

• Self creating RF mesh network• Connect to one = connected to all• Wireless range of 1000 yards

between devices• Raptor, network and battery

information• Upload Deployment to CORE

Raptor UnitRaptor Unit

Extendo Stick InstallationExtendo Stick Installation

Typical InstallationTypical Installation

How We Use the RaptorsHow We Use the Raptors

Place units strategically along the line

Balance data from Raptors with AMI hourly data, transformer loss estimate, and outdoor lighting allocation.

Find the missing losses (KWH)

LimitationsLimitations

Raptor records current vs. time not KWH

Have to set the voltage and power factor to calculate KWH

Works best when proportion of theft is large compared to metered usage

Can use AMI voltage reads to improve voltage estimate

Assumed transformer and line losses

““Real World” CaseReal World” Case

Two Raptors were initially deployed in area of suspected

theft of power

Deployment of Two RaptorsDeployment of Two Raptors

Date/Time Raptor 1 AMI kWh1 Raptor 2 AMI kWh2

10/17/2012 1:00 16.03298 14.2656 9.286024 7.808

10/17/2012 2:00 13.80378 12.0896 5.641167 3.968

10/17/2012 3:00 8.260599 6.2272 4.557097 2.7264

10/17/2012 4:00 9.044932 7.3024 4.692485 2.8352

10/17/2012 5:00 8.296557 6.1824 5.004529 3.1872

10/17/2012 6:00 6.239915 3.9808 4.611639 2.7392

10/17/2012 7:00 6.531928 4.3136 4.233228 2.496

10/17/2012 8:00 7.955795 6.016 4.031715 2.1568

10/17/2012 9:00 9.643197 7.5904 6.325829 4.448

10/17/2012 10:00 8.759917 6.8032 5.220764 3.552

10/17/2012 11:00 31.09532 29.1648 10.23857 8.8384

10/17/2012 12:00 18.5011 17.696 6.745508 5.8368

10/17/2012 13:00 13.49657 13.2672 4.260981 3.9808

10/17/2012 14:00 8.425671 7.8912 3.165087 3.0656

10/17/2012 15:00 10.9826 10.72 5.743733 5.6384

10/17/2012 16:00 7.270891 7.0656 5.067035 5.0432

10/17/2012 17:00 9.972135 9.5296 7.403383 7.2064

10/17/2012 18:00 10.65849 10.5344 8.259151 8.1024

10/17/2012 19:00 12.09876 11.8912 9.108403 9.0432

10/17/2012 20:00 9.086441 8.8512 7.637959 7.5904

10/17/2012 21:00 11.12161 10.6944 5.845335 5.6064

10/17/2012 22:00 14.87193 14.8736 10.40509 10.5728

10/17/2012 23:00 17.30963 16.9024 12.8037 12.64

10/18/2012 0:00 16.13193 14.784 11.72325 10.6304

TOTAL 285.5927 258.6368 162.0117 139.712

Raptor and AMI DataRaptor and AMI Data

Calculated ResultsCalculated Results

TOTAL KWH285.592

7258.636

8162.0116

5 139.712

Assumed Transformer & S/L Losses 25.92 19.44

Total KWH Minus Losses

259.6727 142.5716

Awesense minus

AMI(KWH) 1.0359 2.8597

Actual % Difference 0.39 2.05

Awesense AMI Awesense AMI Raptor 1 KWh1 Raptor 2 KWh2

0%

2.0%

Deployment ResultsDeployment Results

Deployment of Three RaptorsDeployment of Three Raptors

2.29%

7.72%

9.24%

Deployment ResultsDeployment Results

Awesense Results to DateAwesense Results to Date

Found theft site from previous examples – have to consult with law enforcement next

Found a bypassed meter socket in conjunction with AMI exception reports

Narrowing down possible theft on another 20-25 meter tap

Investigating other suspicious areas

Using Awesense to Find Power Using Awesense to Find Power Theft w/o AMITheft w/o AMI

Future UsesFuture Uses

Add more Raptors to our toolkit for detection and investigation of theft of service

Use KWH profile data from down line SEL recloser controls

Continue to make use of all credible tools available and investigate other methods/tools

Use Awesense system to check C&I metering

Questions???Questions???

That’s All – Folks!!That’s All – Folks!!