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Role of GIS in preventing power pilferage

User has been provided with a provision to enter the units, metered during the billing period, at the time of loss evaluation. The billing data is populated simultaneously in external database and Smallworld database. After the entry of meter data at a substation level, system is asked to evaluate the total commercial loss. The methodology that can be adopted is outlined below in Figure -2


Fig. 2: Flowchart of Methodology

The procedure can be applied to all the feeders for the feeder wise commercial loss evaluation and for LT network also, provided the distribution transformer output is metered.

The losses obtained will be an approximate figure because of the factors

• There will be defective meters in the system and the units billed in those cases may not be correct.
• The assessments made regarding the loads while evaluating the technical losses

With this proposed system it is possible to access exactly the geographical areas in which the pilferages are maximum, which can be further avoided by enhanced level of vigilance and by making respective officers responsible for the related areas. Typically the area served by a substation is few sq km and hence the implementation of measures can be made more effective once the area is identified. Figure 3 shows the methodology in brief.


Fig. 3: Analyzing Pilferage at Substation Level

Identifying the individual subscribers and locations where thefts take place
It is also possible to detect theft of energy by an individual consumer, from his bills. Whenever there is a drastic reduction in the number of units he/she consumed, from the previous bill to present bill, he/she can be tagged in the network as suspected. The tag can be removed or retained after a physical check at the consumer premises.

Role of SCADA interfaced GIS system in identifying potential thefts in H.T. distributions
The proposed solution is interface of SCADA with GIS system. The SCADA system will continuously get the real time readings of all electrical parameters at monitored points on feeders. These parameters include, Voltage, Angle, Power Factor, Active Power, Reactive Power and Energy. The system shall also get the status of various switching devices like circuit breakers, switches and isolators. It will also get the transformer parameters like tap position, etc.



Electronic meters will be installed at HT consumers. These meters will be equipped with the interface for communications with the SCADA system. SCADA system will be communicating with the meters using an industry standard protocol. Meter readings shall be used to monitor the load and for detection of attempts to tamper with the meter. As soon as a tamper is detected the meter/consumer shall be tagged on the GIS system. The information shall be passed on to the vigilance groups for physical check, to take further action. The system can be graphically illustrated in Figure 4.

Summary
In this paper a GIS solution for preventing the power pilferages has been presented. The proposed methodology is tested on SmallWorld GIS software. It can be concluded from the above discussion:

• A GIS system integrated with consumer billing system can be very effectively used in detecting the power pilferage.
• Pilferage detection can be done at consumer, distribution transformer, and feeder or substation levels.
• The accuracy of the result depends on the accuracy of the loading pattern considered during the evaluation of technical losses and the accuracy of the meter readings.
• Analysis of patterns of individual consumption over GIS can help in identifying the sources of pilferage at subscriber level.
• GIS system integrated with SCADA can be used in detecting power thefts by HT consumers.

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