Smart meters the best way to tackle power theft menace
                     Xenius
Smart Meter Company
Electricity thefts, besides causing a drain on the 
Smart meters the best way to tackle power departments’ finances and affecting the 
power theft menace quality of power supply, are also responsible for 
increasing the tariff burden on an average 
consumer. Installation of smart meters is the 
best way of checking this criminal practice and 
the Government is doing well to digitalise the 
existing power infrastructure in the country.
Electricity theft is the criminal practice of 
stealing electrical power by tampering with 
electricity meters or by tapping into the grid 
by wire or any other means. It is an illegal 
practice which is punishable under the Indian 
Electricity Act, 1948. The Act enables the 
electricity department to lodge an FIR against 
the defaulter and letting the court decide the 
penalty to be imposed or duration of the jail 
term.
● The Indian Electricity Act, 1948, 
enables the electricity department to 
Electricity theft can be committed by lodge an FIR against the defaulter and 
various ways, the most common being letting the court decide the penalty to 
tampering with the electricity meters. be imposed or duration of the jail term.
It is done by breaking the seal of the 
meter, reversing or stopping the ● Electricity boards suffer massive losses 
mechanical disk from moving, or due to electricity thefts. These losses 
altering the actual reading. The not only affect quality of power supply 
reading can also be altered by or increase load on generating station, 
connecting the meter directly to the they also impact tariff for genuine 
fuse and preventing it from recording consumers.
energy consumption.
● The most significant solution to power 
thefts is installation of smart meters. 
These are the devices based IoT that 
record consumption and send the 
information back to the utility on a 
real-time basis.
● Under the National Smart Grid Mission, 
the Government is planning to convert 
every grid in the country into a smart 
grid and also interconnect every grid 
to function as a single unit.
Another way of executing an electricity 
theft is by illegal tapping of underground 
cables. In case of transformers, the 
overhead lines are tapped on the side of 
low voltage of the transformer. At times, the 
electricity sanctioned for residential 
purpose is used for commercial purposes. 
This too amounts to electricity theft.
Each year, electricity boards suffer massive 
losses due to electricity thefts, which are 
quite prevalent in the country. These losses 
not only affect the quality of power supply 
or increase load on the generating station, 
they also affect the tariff imposed on 
genuine consumers. It is a tough task for 
the power utilities to detect the instances of 
power thefts and punish those responsible 
for these criminal acts.
The most significant solution to power 
thefts is installation of smart meters. These 
are the devices based on Internet of Things 
(IoT) that record consumption and send the 
information back to the utility on a real-time 
basis. Smart meters can also detect any 
tampering done at the power-receiving end 
and send real-time notification to the utility 
in case any anomaly is detected.
To prevent the massive losses incurred by 
electricity departments due to power thefts, 
the Government is planning to fully 
digitalise the existing infrastructure in the 
country. Under the National Smart Grid 
Mission, it is planning to convert every grid 
in the country into a smart grid and also 
interconnect every grid to function as a 
single unit.
Know about Xenius At Xenius we believe in making lives better 
by ‘Humanizing Machines’. We can 
contribute with you to make your life stress-
free with Prepaid Metering, Smart City to 
Smart Grid, to FTTH. We started our mission 
in 1998. After almost two decades of 
success, we have emerged as one of the 
top IoT / M2M professionals in India.
Address: H-98, H Block, Sector 63, Noida, 
Uttar Pradesh 201301
Contact Xenius
Email: [email protected]  
Phone: +91-120-4201765, +91-7303093408
Source: 
https://www.xenius.in/smart-meters-the-bes
t-way-to-tackle-power-theft-menace/
 
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