2017 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Electro-Technology for National Development (NIGERCON)
Development of a Cost-Effective Electricity Theft
Detection and Prevention System based on IoT Technology
R. E. Ogu and G. A. Chukwudebe
Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria
ogureginald@gmail.com, gloria_chukwudebe@ieee.org
Abstract— Electricity theft is one of the major challenges
faced by the power companies. It prevents the power companies
from making adequate money from the sale of electricity. This
paper presents the development of a cost effective electricity theft
detection and prevention system using the Internet of Things
(IoT) technology. The Arduino MKR1000 microcontroller board
is employed as a bi-function element; to coordinate the activities
of the system and to connect the system to a WiFi network and
subsequently to the Internet. A Passive Infrared Sensor is
employed as the sensory element to detect when the sensitive part
of a meter is opened by a human being. A Solid State Relay with
zero crossing capability is used to connect the loads to the
distribution network. The Thingspeak.com IoT Analytic
platform is employed to create a webpage so that the status of the
meter can be visualized on the Internet by the power company.
The result of this paper is a functional system for electricity theft
detection and prevention whose mode of operation is based on
IoT concept.
Keywords-Arduino: Electricity theft prevention; IoT; IoT Data
Analytics; Tamper Detection.
I. INTRODUCTION
Unstable electricity supply is one of the pressing problems
of Nigeria. Despite the level of privatization in the power
sector, the situation has worsened to the extent of the entire
country experiencing a total black-out on March 31, 2016.
While the nation has always been known for epileptic power
supply, this unfortunate event marked the emergence of a new
low in the country’s power supply system [1].
Despite the fact that the Nigeria power sector had become
unbundled with private investors in the distribution and
generating sectors, very trivial improvement is observed. This
can be because there is presently no competition in the
distribution sector; since consumers have only one operator in
their zone. Hence, the issues are still persisting; some
electricity consumers get inflated bills of power not consumed,
some are tapping electricity directly from the distribution
network while some bypass their prepaid meters. All these
activities constitute electricity theft [2].
Electricity theft is one of the biggest problems damaging
the power sector of Nigeria; it includes any activity done, in
order for the consumers of electricity to use electric power
without the proper consent of the utility so as not to pay for
the energy.
The distribution companies are often discouraged from
installing electricity devices (electricity meters) at the
consumers’ premises because when such devices are installed,
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consumers often tamper with them. Some consumers go to the
extent of bypassing the energy meters in their homes, offices
or industries.
Normally, if the consumers do not pay for electricity used;
the distribution companies will not be able to pay for power
generated and transmitted to them, the situation creates a
vicious cycle that can cripple any electricity sector [2].
Since there is no effective electricity metering system, it
implies that the distribution companies cannot effectively bill
the customers. The distribution companies will in turn not be
able to pay the transmission company for the energy
transmitted to them. As a result of this, the transmission
company will not be able to pay for the energy that was
generated. The generation companies will be faced with
difficulties both in the procurement of new equipment,
maintenance of the existing machines and payment of the
workers’ salary. The entire process contributes heavily to
irregular electricity supply.
For this problem to be solved there is need for proper and
effective metering systems. If such metering systems are
installed, there is also need for constant monitoring of the
meter to know when the consumer has tampered with it or
when the consumer has bypassed it. This will require the staff
of the distribution companies to constantly visit the premises
of the consumer for both meter reading and tamper activity
inspection; this is a lot of work for the staff and not feasible.
In a previous work, an attempt was made to prevent
electricity theft by making a meter to be tamper proof.
Although successful, the system connected the electricity
meter to the Internet so that the power company can monitor
the status of the meter from their office to know when the
meter is tampered with. In conjunction with other components,
two separate boards were utilized, one as a controller and the
other as a network interface [2].
In order to reduce the cost associated with the procurement
of two separate boards (a controller and a network interface),
an attempt is made here to use a single board to do the work
done by the two boards.
The primary objective of this study is to develop a cost
effective Internet-of-Things (IoT) based Electricity Theft
Detection and Prevention System.
If electricity theft is curbed, there will be an improvement
in the power sector. There will be reduction in electricity tariff
and the electricity companies (distribution, transmission and
generation) will make enough profit and begin to plan for
 2017 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Electro-Technology for National Development (NIGERCON)
expansion of their businesses. For example, if the Generation
companies expand their businesses, it means that more power
will be generated and supplied to the Transmission Company.
At the end of the day, there will be an increase in the amount
of power available for the consumers to use.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technological concept that
connects things to the Internet for data exchange. It is used in
this study to connect the electricity meter to the Internet in
order to prevent the meter from being tampered with.
Presented below are some works which used IoT in
electricity theft prevention.
A tamper proof system for the smart meters using IoT
technology was developed in [2]. Although this system is
applicable to both the green field and brown field approach of
the Internet of Things, it utilized two separate boards, one as a
controller and the other as network interface. The cost
associated with the procurement of the Arduino Mega 2560
and Arduino WiFI Shield 101 boards is high, relative to the
cost of a single board, hence; there is need for a cheaper and
effective system.
In [3], a tamper proof electricity meter with IoT
technology was developed with Raspberry pi embedded
system module. This system is costly because of the cost of
the Raspberry pi board relative to other embedded system
boards like the Arduino. Also, the Raspberry pi is not an open
source platform. The board is manufactured by only one
vendor unlike other platforms like Arduino. Hence, there is
need to develop a system that will utilize an open source
platform whose boards can easily be manufactured by various
companies.
An IoT based system that consists of Power Line
Communication (PLC) modem, a theft detection unit and a
WI-FI unit was proposed in [4]. Two separate systems were
proposed to make up a working system. One of the systems is
to be installed at the point of entrance of electricity in a
consumer’s premises while the other unit is to be installed at
the utility company. Generally, three microcontrollers were
proposed to be used in the project; two of such will be used in
the system installed at the consumers end for IoT and theft
detection capabilities. The remaining microcontroller will be
used in the system located at the utility office [4].
However, the proposed system is not cost effective as it
involves the operation of two separate systems to form a
functional system.
An IoT metering system that prevents electricity theft by
disconnecting any consumer who has an outstanding
electricity bill to be paid has been developed in [5]. Energy
consumption calculation is based on readings from voltage
and current sensors [5]. This system is only applicable to the
green field approach of Internet-of-Things technology because
it requires the construction of a new meter but the system to be
developed in this paper will suit both the green field and
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brown field approach of Internet-of-Things implementation.
Also, this system does not detect meter tampering.
An IoT based transformer power theft detection and
protection was presented in [6]. In order to sense the power
theft, a current sensor was used. The messages regarding the
maintenance of the transformer are sent to the maintenance
department, using a GSM-module [6]. This study failed to
connect the transformer to the Internet; which is the main
concept of Internet-of-Things.
An IoT based metering system with electricity theft
detection to measure energy consumption in the house and
generate its bill automatically using telemetric communication
was reported in [7]. The electricity bill calculations are
performed automatically and the bill is updated on the Internet
by using a network of Internet-of-Things. The bill amount can
be checked by the owner anywhere globally. If the consumer
fails to pay the bill on time, the electricity supply can
automatically be turned off. Also power theft can be detected
if any tampering happens; the system will send the
information to the server and cut the electricity automatically
[7]. This system is only applicable to the green field approach
of IoT implementation.
An IoT based embedded system that checks electricity
theft and enables the remote control of appliance was
presented in [8]. In this system, reference energy consumption
is set and once the energy consumption rises above the
threshold, the system considers the activity as electricity theft
[8].
It can be seen that most of the electricity theft prevention
systems are targeting the smart meter while neglecting the
electromechanical meter.
Also, most of the existing electricity theft prevention
systems (at the meter level) have to do with the development
of new smart meters with theft prevention except the device
developed in [2]. Meter tampering has been neglected by most
of the works not minding the fact that it is a delicate form of
electricity theft.
Therefore, there is need to develop a cost effective system
that will prevent meter tampering.
III. METHODOLOGY
A. System Block Diagram
Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the electricity theft
detection and prevention system. The system simply connects
the meter to the Internet so that the utility company can be
aware of the status of the electricity meter, in order to
determine when the meter is tampered with; hence the IoT
concept.
One good thing about the system is that the controller and
the network interface units are packed in a single module so as
to reduce cost, associated with the procurement of two
separate boards, one as the controller and the other as the
network interface.
 2017 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Electro-Technology for National Development (NIGERCON)

Mains Supply This is a backup power supply unit for the system. It
8.4V,
makes the system functional even when there is no power
5600mAh from the utility company. A small 8.4V, 5600mAh
LiPo DC
Power Supply Unit rechargeable battery is used here.
Power
Supply Unit
B. Circuit Connection
As a reminder, the controller and the network interface are
Human Solid already connected on one board. The output of the PIR sensor
Controller
(Presence) State is connected to the pin A1 of the Arduino MKR1000 board.
Detector and Relay The positive pin of the Solid State Relay is connected to pin1
Network Interface of the MKR1000 while the Ground pin of the solid state relay
is connected to ground of the MKR1000 board. Figure 2
Loads shows the pictorial diagram of the connections between the
boards.
Figure 1: Block Diagram of the Electricity Theft Detection
and Prevention System.
The system comprises of the following blocks:
1. Electricity Theft Detection Unit
For the purpose of this study, any attempt to open the
sensitive part of the meter is considered a theft activity. In
order to detect when the sensitive part of the meter is opened,
a passive infrared sensor is chosen as the sensory element to
detect the presence of a human whenever the meter enclosure
is opened.
2. Controller and Network Interface
The controller coordinates the functions of all other parts
of the system while the network interface is responsible for
connecting the system to a WiFi network and subsequently to
the Internet for data exchange. Figure 2: Connections between the boards.
To reduce cost, a single module is selected to act as a C. System Algorithm
controller and a network interface, instead of choosing
separate units for the controller and network interface. For this The following steps illustrate the algorithm of the
purpose, the bi-functional Arduino MKR1000 board is chosen electricity theft detection and prevention system.
to reduce cost and also reduce the number of components. 1. Once the device is powered, all components will be
3. Electricity Theft Prevention Unit initialized.

To prevent electricity theft, it will be wise to disconnect 2.
the loads of a suspected electricity thief from the distribution
network. A Solid state relay is utilized in connecting the loads 3.
of a consumer to the distribution network in normal operation
and in disconnecting the affected consumer from the 4.
distribution network, when the meter is tampered with.
The system will connect the loads to the distribution
network.
The system then checks if the meter is tampered with.
After the check, the system will update the Internet
with the status of the meter.

4. Power Supply Unit 5. The system continues to monitor the meter, once the
meter is tampered with, the load connected to the
This block provides the entire power needed by the system meter is disconnected from the distribution network.
to function. The 220V AC mains supply is reduced to 9V AC
by a step down transformer, rectified using a pair of diodes
that formed a bi-phase full wave rectifier. A capacitor is The Flow chart of Figure 3 represents the algorithm of
employed as a filter to remove the ripples in the signal while electricity theft detection and prevention system. It shows the
the LM7805 monolithic Integrated Circuit is employed for mode of operation of the system.
voltage regulation to produce a constant 5V DC.
Also this power supply charges the DC Backup so that
when there is no power from the utility company, the DC
Backup can energize the system.
5. DC Backup

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 2017 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Electro-Technology for National Development (NIGERCON)

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figures 4 and 5 show the snapshot of a web browser during
the testing stage of the system. Figure 4 is a snapshot of a web
browser displaying the Thingspeak channel for the system. At
this point, the system has not been powered ON. The system
has not sent any data to the Internet.

Figure 4: Snapshot of the Thingspeak channel, when the system has

not sent any data to the Internet.

Also, displayed on the channel is the location of the meter.

This information enables the power company to identify the
particular meter that has been tampered with.

Figure 3: Flow chart of the electricity theft detection and prevention

system.

D. IoT Analytics
Data analytics examine big/large data sets in order to draw
inference about the content of the data. In this study, a data
analytic platform is used to gather the data sent by the
connected meter so as to determine when the meter is
tampered with.
A utility company may have several meters under its watch
and may not be able to effectively monitor the meters at the
same time but with the use of a data analytic several meters
can be monitored at the same time effectively.
The Thingspeak.com IoT Data Analytic is used to
visualize the status of the meter on the Internet. The PIR
sensor senses when the meter has been tampered with, sends
signal to the controller and network interface units. The Figure 5: Snapshot of the Thingspeak channel, after several tamper
network module connects the meter to the Internet by first activities.
connecting to an Internet-ready WiFi network and
Figure 5 is showing the snapshot of a web browser displaying
subsequently uploads the status of the meter to the Internet.
the Thingspeak channel for the system. At this time, the

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 2017 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Electro-Technology for National Development (NIGERCON)
system has been powered ON and has sent the status of the
meter to the Internet. The chart beside the Google map shows
the status of the meter.
Initially the meter enclosure was not opened and the chart
remained on a low level. Immediately the meter enclosure was
opened the system updated the Internet and the chart toggled
from its low-level to a high-level.
Several attempts of opening and closing of the meter enclosure
resulted in the toggling of the chart as seen in Figure 5.
In the chart, the numerical values on the vertical signify the
output of the PIR sensor. When there is no human detection,
the output of the sensor is approximately 0 while when there is
human detection the output of the sensor is about 635 (this
corresponds to 3.1V of the output of the PIR sensor when it is
HIGH).
On the horizontal axis, the date and time in which a data was
sent to the Internet are displayed. All the data sent by the
system to the Internet are logged for reference purposes and
can be downloaded as a spreadsheet document.
Immediately the system was powered ON, the loads connected
to the GRID came ON. Once the first tampering activity was
carried out, the loads were switched OFF and never came ON
again until the entire testing process.
V. CONCLUSION
Checking electricity theft will drastically affect the power
sector positively, as power companies will make adequate
money from the sale of electricity and plan to improve the
system.
The only existing system that closely relates to the system
developed in this paper, is the system developed in [2]. For
analytical purposes, in order to actualize the system of [2], the
Arduino Mega 2560 and Arduino WiFi Shield 101 cost $35.00
and $49.95 respectively; this gives a total of $84.95.
In this work, a single board (Arduino MKR1000) performs
the functions done by the two separate boards above (the
Arduino Mega 2560 and the Arduino WiFi shield 101).
The cost of Arduino MKR1000 is $44.95. Comparing the
total cost of the Controller and the network interface of [2],
which is $84.95 to $44.95 which is the cost of an amalgamated
board that has a controller and the network interface together,
it can be clearly understood that the cost has been drastically
reduced.
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This paper has succeeded in designing a cost effective
electricity theft detection and prevention system using the
Internet-of-Things technology by using a single board to act as
a controller and a network interface.
The paper also verified the designed system by constructing
and testing a prototype of the system using the components
outlined in this paper.
VI. RECOMMENDATION
This study only developed a system that detects the
presence of humans tampering with the meter,
recommendation is made on any study that will develop a
system to detect both humans and robots tampering with the
meter. This is necessary because robots can also be
programmed to tamper with the meter, in such a case; this
system becomes almost useless.
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