A data-driven approach to reduce electricity theft in developing countries

Ahmad Nadeem and Naveed Arshad

Utilities Policy, 2021, vol. 73, issue C

Abstract: Theft of electricity is a problem in many developing countries. But AMI is paving the way for data-centric architecture to help in theft detection. However, a smart grid or even AMR is a long shot for many developing countries due to the costs involved in its large-scale deployment. This paper presents a technique to detect outliers among electricity users that further investigates electricity theft using data analytics on monthly usage data available to every utility company. Using this technique, we have reduced the search space for theft identification to as low as 3.4% of the total customer base.

Keywords: Big data analytics; Automated metering infrastructure; Electricity theft (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juipol:v:73:y:2021:i:c:s0957178721001387

DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2021.101304

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