Non-Technical Loss analysis for detection of electricity theft using support vector machines

Electricity consumer dishonesty is a problem faced by all power utilities. Finding efficient measurements for detecting fraudulent electricity consumption has been an active research area in recent years. This paper presents a new approach towards Non-Technical Loss (NTL) analysis for electric utilities using a novel intelligence-based technique, Support Vector Machine (SVM). The main motivation of this study is to assist Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) in Malaysia to reduce its NTLs in the distribution sector due to electricity theft. The proposed model preselects suspected customers to be inspected onsite for fraud based on irregularities and abnormal consumption behavior. This approach provides a method of data mining and involves feature extraction from historical customer consumption data. The SVM based approach uses customer load profile information to expose abnormal behavior that is known to be highly correlated with NTL activities. The result yields classification classes that are used to shortlist potential fraud suspects for onsite inspection, based on significant behavior that emerges due to irregularities in consumption. Simulation results prove the proposed method is more effective compared to the current actions taken by TNB in order to reduce NTL activities.

I. Introduction

ELECTRIC utilities lose large amounts of money each year due to fraud by electricity consumers. Electricity fraud can be defined as a dishonest or illegal use of electricity equipment or service with the intention to avoid billing charge. It is difficult to distinguish between honest and fraudulent customers. Realistically, electric utilities will never be able to eliminate fraud. It is possible, however, to take measures to detect, prevent and reduce fraud [1].