Eskom gets smart in its battle to identify electricity thieves

Eskom is increasingly using smart meters and data analytics to identify electricity thieves as it tackles a growing problem that in the year to March accounted for 7.55% of its energy losses, up from 6.19% in 2012-13.

In January, a 15-month toddler was killed in his yard by an illegal electricity connection. In February three people were electrocuted in separate incidents on the South Coast, apparently after stepping on exposed cables. In May, communities around Gauteng protested in the streets about continued outages resulting from cable theft.

These are some of the human costs of electricity theft. In financial terms, Eskom loses about R5.4bn of revenue a year and municipalities about R15.2bn a year from illegal connections, meter-tampering, illegal sales of prepaid electricity, theft of infrastructure and nonpayment.

This is according to Madelline Kadzinga, the marketing project manager of Eskom’s Anti-Electricity Theft Campaign, speaking at a media briefing in Germiston on Tuesday.

Despite perceptions that electricity theft occurs mainly in poor communities, about 39% is by industrial and commercial customers; 61% is households including in affluent areas.

Eskom’s project manager for energy and revenue losses, Dileep John, said some businesses were willing to risk paying penalties for electricity theft because the fine was less than the electricity saving. They did not realise Eskom was also

THE CENTRAL SYSTEM CAN TURN OFF POWER REMOTELY

entitled to recover lost revenue, which could amount to very significant amounts of money.

Eskom is close to completing a programme to install 30,000 smart meters in Sandton and Midrand and has installed 40,000 out of a targeted 180,000 split meters in Soweto.

These are Eskom’s direct customers. Municipalities have their own plans for rolling out smart meters.

John said Eskom was able to reconcile the electricity fed into a network with its billing system to identify shortfalls.

It is testing the capabilities of smart meters beyond consumption and billing information. For example, a meter can send an alarm to the central system as soon as its cover is removed, preparatory to tampering.

The central system can turn off a customer’s power remotely in the event of nonpayment.

Eskom can monitor a single household’s consumption and compare it with its neighbours to identify customers who use abnormally little electricity, which may be because they are bypassing the system.

When anomalies are picked up, Eskom sends investigators to the household. As a result of recent amendments to the Electricity Act and the Criminal Matters Amendment Act, offenders face penalties and jail terms.