Measures and setbacks for controlling electricity theft

Most of the utility companies in developing countries incur huge losses because of the non-technical losses (NTL). It is very difficult to detect and control potential causes of NTL in developing countries due to their poor infrastructure. Electricity theft and billing irregularities form a major chunk of NTL. These losses affect quality of supply, electrical load on the generating station and tariff imposed on electricity consumed by genuine customers. This paper discusses various factors those influence the consumer to make an attempt to steal electricity In addition, some handy cases where electricity theft are detected will be illustrated. In view of these ill effects, some methods for detection and estimation of the theft will be discussed. This paper also illustrates several methods to quantify and control theft. In essence, setbacks for implementation of these measures and techniques will be illustrated in detail. Motivation of this work is to conserve the interest of utility companies in providing quality electricity to genuine customers at affordable tariff.