Bahir Dar University: Institute of Technology School of Computing and Electrical Engineering

June 22, 2013 [Electric Power Theft Controlling System]
BAHIR DAR UNIVERSITY

Institute of Technology
School of Computing and Electrical Engineering
Thesis on
[ELECTRIC POWER THEFT CONTROLLING SYSTEM]

Submitted
IN PARTIAL FULLFILMENT OF THE REQUIRMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
IN
ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING (COMPUTER ENGINEERING)

By
AdaneAbera
AmanuelAbebe
Atirsaw Awoke
DawitAlemseged
June 2005E.C
BahirDar, Ethiopia
BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | DECLARATION 1

Electric Power Theft Controlling System

By
Adane Abera [ENG/R/0066/2001]

Amanuel Abebe [ENG/R/0140/2001]
Atirsaw Awok [ENG/R/0210/2001]
Dawit Alemseged [PPC/0254/1997 ]
A thesis submitted to
School of CEE
of
Bahir Dar University
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Science
in
Electrical and Computer Engineering (Computer Engineering)
Advisor: Andargachew Gobena
June 2005E.C
BahirDar, Ethiopia
BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 1

Declaration
This thesis is our own and has not been presented for a degree in any other university and all
the sources of material used for the thesis has been duly acknowledged.
_____________________ ______________________
AdaneAbera AmanuelAbebe
20/06/2013 20/06/2013
____________________ ______________________
Atirsaw Awoke DawitAlemseged
20/06/2013 20/06/2013
Student: AdaneAbera, AmanuelAbebe, Atirsaw Awoke, DawitAlemseged

School: School of Computing and Electrical Engineering
Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Thesis subject: Electric Power Theft Controlling System
I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Bachelor of
Science.
-----------------------
Ashagrie M
Program Coordinator
-----------------------
Adargachew G.
Advisor
Examining committee members signature Date
Chairman ____________ ___________
Examiner 1 ____________ ___________
Examiner 2 ____________ ____________
It is approved that this thesis has been written in compliance with the formatting rules laid
down by the school of the university.

CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEGMENT .......................................................................................................................... iii

ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................... iv
PREFACE ............................................................................................................................................... v
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................ vii
LIST OF SYMBOLS AND NOTATIONS .......................................................................................... viii
1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Motivation ............................................................................................................................... 4
1.3 Problem Description ............................................................................................................... 4
1.4 Objective ....................................................................................................................................... 5
General Objective ........................................................................................................................... 5
Specific Objective ........................................................................................................................... 5
1.5 Organization of the project ..................................................................................................... 6
1.6 Scope of the project ..................................................................................................................... 6
2. LITRATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................. 7
2.1. Types of Theft of Electricity ........................................................................................................ 8
3. SYSTEM DESIGN AND ANALYSIS ........................................................................................... 9
3.1. Overview of the System ............................................................................................................... 9
3.2. System Component and Building blocks ................................................................................... 10
i) Hardware ................................................................................................................................... 10
ii) Software.................................................................................................................................... 16
3.3. System Design and Analysis ...................................................................................................... 18
A. Hardware Part .......................................................................................................................... 18
B. Software ................................................................................................................................... 20
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ................................................................................................. 21
5.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ................................................................................. 22
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 22
RECOMMENDATION .................................................................................................................... 23
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 24
APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................................... 25
BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | ii

ACKNOWLEGMENT
First and for most, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to our advisor, Mr.
Andargachew Gobena, for, his excellent guidance, caring, patience, and providing us with an
excellent atmosphere for doing this thesis. Secondly we would like to thank Mr. Agzew
Adissu, the head of technical operation and maintenance department in Ethio-telecom North
West region and the workers of Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEpco) North West
region for giving us basic input data to our project. Special thanks to Mr.Ashgrie Mekuriaw
the program manager of Electrical and computer engineering department for his all-round
support.
Last but not least, thanks to the almighty God for everything we have achieved without
his will nothing is possible; and extra ordinary thanks to our parents who support and believe
on us through the long journey.
BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | iii

ABSTRACT
Our purpose in this project is to identify the Power theft and indicates it to the EEPCO using
GSM network. It makes use of one digital energy meter, one current sensor, one
microcontroller and one GSM per customer. Here there is one additional current measuring
circuit installed between the main distribution line and customer branch line which located at
the pole, in addition to main energy meter. The power consumed by customer is first
measured by the additional current sensor before getting to the customer‟s house or company,
and then the energy used by the customer is measures by the main energy meter which is
located on the customer‟s side. So if there is any difference between energy measured by the
first current sensor and the main energy meter, the system sends a signal to the corporation
for inspection using the GSM modem attached to main meter. The server at central station
accepts and saves the massages sent from customer conserving theft alarm and monthly
reading to centre database. In turn this information is used to trigger warning signal or to
charge the customer for their respective monthly usage.
BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | iv

PREFACE
At the third year we heard some disgusting news from the then ETV todays ERTA; and we
start to think about that issue i.e. power theft which is the „blood cancer‟ for the very young
and immature economy of our country. Then by the time we become fifth year, we have
decide to use this opportunity to contribute little that we can for our nation and ask for some
advice to Mr. Tedros Gera and Mr. Andargachew Gobena about this project and they really
appreciate the idea and motivate us to take it seriously and work day and night to come with
some tangible solution about the problem.
And from day one we start doing this project for the last three months and it was not simple
and easy journey as we thought it to be.
After a lot of ups and downs we have come we some sort of solutions; even though it is not
100%, but for sure it is the corner stone for a solution in the near future and it can contribute
as a stepping stone for those who are interested doing research on the field. Last but not the
least, these paper can help EEPCO and the government to take some steps to challenge the
problem by implementing method.
BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | v

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Ardiuno ...................................................................................................................... 11

Figure 2 GSM Modem and its SIM card ................................................................................. 13
Figure 3 Current Sensor ........................................................................................................... 15
Figure 4 Sending SMS from an C#.NET application .............................................................. 17
Figure 5 General description of the system ............................................................................. 18
Figure 6 General system block diagram .................................................................................. 19
Figure 7 Flow chart of ardiuno power comparison code ......................................................... 20
BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | vi

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Result of Bahir Dar EEPCO ......................................................................................... 3
BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | vii

LIST OF SYMBOLS AND NOTATIONS
PCB Printed Circuit Board
LED Light Emitted Diode
GSM Global System for Mobile Telecommunication
EEPCO Ethiopian Electric power Corporation
NWR North West Region
TNB Tenaga Nasional Berhad
NTL Non-Technical losses
EEPROM Electrical Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
RF Radio frequency
LPC Large Power Consumers
RMR Remote meter reading
AMR Automatic Meter Reading
SMS Short Message Service
PIN Personal Identification Number
EPsaver Electric Power saver (name of the software developed)
BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | viii

1. INTRODUCTION
Electricity is the modern man‟s most convenient and useful form of energy without which the
present social infrastructure would not be feasible. The increase in its production is the
reflection of the increase in the living standard of people. Ethiopia, one of the ancient African
civilizations with an estimated population of about 84 million, is on a road to rapid growth in
economy and education. As we are striving to full fill the five years development and
transformation plan the growing need for electric power is highly increasing due to expansion
in different type of industry and large factory. As a result power, particularly electric power,
is a key input for accelerating this economic growth. Following this, electric power theft has
become a great challenge to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. The theft of electric
power is a criminal offence and power utilities are losing millions of birr in this account. If an
Automatic Meter Reading system via global system for mobile communication(GSM)
network is set in a power delivery system, detecting illegal electricity usage is possible.
In addition to this power theft is the „blood cancer‟ of developing countries which it leads
unfair market computation and directly affecting the macro and micro economy of the
government; that means power theft totally leads to the wrong direction of per capital
income share of the companies as well as the individual citizens. As a result of this the
infrastructural distribution is highly affected and even the power of the government is at risk
at the long run.
1.1 Background
Electricity theft is not a new phenomenon but it is becoming important because of its
impact on the cost of electricity to consumers and the utility companies alike. Unlike other
forms of theft, electricity theft hardly carries strict penalties. Recently, however, there has
been the development of more policies and stronger legislative power to deal with those who
take part in the fraudulent extraction of electricity. There are four main ways that electricity
can be accessed illegally. Electricity can be fraudulently accessed through illegal hookups,
meter tampering or bypass, billing irregularities and unpaid bills. Illegal hookups occur when
electrical wires are directly connected to the grid system from the individual‟s premises. High
risks of electrocution and electrical fires are associated with this type of electricity theft.

Technically, this type of theft is the least sophisticated and is usually practiced by poorer
households. It is also very easy to detect.
Meter related theft is hardly found among poor households because it is technically
sophisticated and usually requires some electrical wiring knowledge. Meter tampering can be
done by inserting a device into the meter resulting in an inaccurately lower reading on the
meter. This tampering can be detected only by an audit on the premises or by discrepancies in
the electricity bill. Meter bypass occurs when some of the wiring of the premises is
engineered to not pass through the meter. Like meter tampering, this is also very difficult to
detect.
Billing irregularities is a manifestation of corruption in the utility company through

bribes to utility officials. Usually, the meter reader is compensated for not reporting the
accurate electricity usage of the property. This method again, is not a popular option with the
poor. Refusal to pay electricity bills is a common practice by all socioeconomic groups. The
utility company has the greatest control over this since they are able to disconnect customers
for unpaid bills. Disconnections are usually a prelude to another form of electricity fraud. In
spite of this knowledge, there still remains a vague understanding of how much theft is being
stolen by different groups of the society.
Power theft is a serious problem and it‟s among some of the challenges confronting most
African countries specifically the south Sahara countries which Ethiopia is not exceptional.
Power theft when not checked and prevented can derail the growth and progress of an
economy. It can also leads to frequent power outages due to lack of funds by the Electricity
company to import power equipment‟s like transformer and others to augment the demands
of electrical power to both domestic and industrial consumers. The source of this illegal
connection of power supply is mainly due to lack of proper monitoring system.
Most cases of electricity theft occur when violators physically alter the internal
mechanism of their electric meters, causing the electricity to bypass the meter and not be
recorded. As a result, violators are not charged for the total number of kilowatt-hours actually
used, causing lost revenue for the electricity providers. In addition, tampering with live
electricity inside a meter is dangerous and could result in a fire, shock or even death to the
perpetrator. Utility staff could also be injured when later repairing the meter.

Below are some of the common methods of identifying electricity theft:

Financial Rewards – Utility companies encourage consumers to report electricity theft,
sometimes offering big reward for information leading to conviction of anyone stealing
electricity. Unfortunately, most cases are never identified in both domestic and industrial
setup due to lack of timely information.
Periodic Checks – Electricity theft frequently takes place after service has been
disconnected. Ethiopian electric power corporation(EEPCO)periodically checks disconnected
meters if customers has not contacted them to reconnect services. This labor- intensive,
manual process has little chance of success but which is not effective and sufficient.
The inspection is done accidentally by throughout the year on those customers which uses
higher power. Such as industries, small business enterprises, factories and any systems that
uses motors and generators etc. here is the data below in the table from EEPCO NWR that
shows number of inspection and number of thefts in year.
Table 1 Result of Bahir Dar EEPCO

Inspection Total no Customers No Amount of Amount of power
time customers inspected Theft power theft in theft in birr
detected (KWH)
July 2004 - 169,000 2573 37 1,192,601 747,981.7
May 2005
Meter Readers – Utility meter readers typically suspect that electricity theft is taking place when
they find a broken meter tag or other signs of tempering. But currently there are few issues that
EEPCO faces from outsourcing its meter reading operation. One is a reliability of the agents.
It is as a result of the above shortcomings in finding the power theft perpetrators and bringing
them to face justice that this noble project work is being undertaking to bring the violators to
limelight and expose them of their shameful deeds. Theft of electricity is a social evil. No country
is free from its attack. Millions of dollars‟ worth electricity is being pilfered every year. These
costs are routinely passed to honest consumers in the form of higher electricity charges. Most
countries have treated it as a criminal offence also.

1.2 Motivation
Science and technology with all its miraculous advancements has fascinated human life to
a great extent that imagining a world without these innovations is hardly possible. While
technology is on the raising slope, we should also note the increasing immoral activities.
With a technical view, "Power Theft" is a non-ignorable crime that is highly prevalent, and at
the same time it directly affects the economy of a nation. With increases of importance of
electricity and immorality of people, how much should the theft of this energy or illegal
consumption would be? The answer is obvious, it would be much more. The other big
question that follows this will be how much of this electric power lines are secured during its
transmission and distribution and how can theft attempt be averted? The answer to this
question is the concern of this project work.
Detecting and eradicating such crimes with the assistance of the developing scientific field
is the "Need of the Hour". With these views was this paper conceived and designed. Our
paper provides a comprehensive tool to prevent power theft which is very simple to
understand and easy to implement. Based on electricity stealing that is going on our country,
the system with remote monitoring is designed, not only to monitor the electricity stealing
occurrence by sending SMS to the central station but also to reads energy meter by ever
month to charge the user with the necessary amount.
1.3 Problem Description
Electric power transmission and distribution companies in developing countries

continuously encounter challenges of providing efficient and reliable power supply to the end
users at competitive price. This comes because of so many factors; from that power theft is
the major factor. Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is one of the corporations which
suffer from this problem and loses many millions birr annually due to electric power theft
caused by intruders. Due to economic growth the need of electric energy is increasing which
results in high demand of electric energy which in turn is affecting the price to increase. As a
result theft and improper use of electric power is increasing from time to time. In our country
there was no adequate system that detects and report stealing attempts till now. So we have
taken this problem as a motivation and developed this project that tries to build a system that
detects and report any intruder act. We believe that the existing power theft problem could be

solved by modifying the controlling mechanism so that no power is lost due to intruder illegal
act.
1.4 Objective
General Objective
Power theft which is otherwise known as illegal connections is currently gaining grounds In
Ethiopia and it‟s seriously having a negative impact on our economy despite all effort by the
Ethiopian electric power corporation (EEPCO) to reverse the trend. The Objective of this
project is to build a system that detects and report any intruder stilling act on the electric
power to the central station of the corporation generally this project Work is aiming at
helping the Ethiopian electric power corporation to arrest and prosecute people who are
behind this crime.
Specific Objective
The objectives of this project are:
 To propose arduino base power theft system for a prompt identification Of power theft
activities.
 To minimize the rate of illegal tapping of power supply for both domestic and Industrial
usage.
 To minimize the higher cost of hiring power task force to monitor the activities.

1.5 Organization of the project
This paper is organized in the following format in a way that caught the attention of the
reader. As you have noticed the first chapter introduce us to the total over view. Literature
review is captured in chapter two. System analysis, identification of system component
various limitations, is captured in chapter four. Chapter five talks about the results and
discussions as well as cost analysis involved of the project work. Chapter six concludes the
work with summary, conclusion and recommendation of the work.
1.6 Scope of the project
The scope of this project goes up to detecting power theft by using one current sensor before
the power line branches to the customer home and the main energy meter installed to measure
usage meters and comparing if there is difference between the two reading and reporting it to
the central station using Ozeki NG. It is limited to reporting the theft but it could also be
extended for reading the meter reading automatically for the billing system.

2. LITRATURE REVIEW
The electrical power theft goes back more than two thousand years, to the time the Ancient
Greeks discovered that rubbing fur on amber caused an attraction between the two. By the
17th century, many electricity-related discoveries had been made, such as the invention of an
early electrostatic generator, the differentiation between positive and negative currents, and
the classification of materials as conductors or insulators. In the year 1600, English physician
William Gilbert conned the term electric, from the Greek elektron, to identify the force that
certain substances exert when rubbed against each other. Just after this beautiful discovery,
electricity was produced in large and commercial quantities with many similar discoveries
that go with the use of electrical power which makes its used very attractive and convenient
to many consumers. As people enjoys this essential commodity which basically does not
come free because power utility companies surely have to accrue money from consumers to
be able purchase power equipment to ensure uninterrupted power supply. Consumers trying
as much as they could to outwit the utility companies‟ device a means of scaling down the
readings of meters. Electricity theft, an ongoing problem for all electricity providers, is
punishable by jail time, in Ethiopia. Most cases of electricity theft occur when violators
physically alter the internal mechanism of their electric meters, causing the electricity to
bypass the meter and not be recorded. As a result, violators are not charged for the total
number of kilowatt-hours actually used, causing lost revenue for the electricity providers. In
addition, tampering with live electricity inside a meter is dangerous and could result in a fire,
shock or even death to the perpetrator. Utility staff could also be injured when later repairing
the meter. Several studies have been done to prevent this power theft, the extensively studied
NTL detection of electricity theft and abnormalities for large power consumers In TNB
Malaysia where they raised the issue of dishonesty of the Electricity consumer being a
problem faced by all power utilities and tried to Find efficient measurements for detecting
fraudulent electricity consumption has been an active research area in recent years. Nagi and
the group presented an approach towards detection of Non-technical Losses (NTLs) of Large
Power Consumers (LPC) in Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) Malaysia. The main motivation
of the study is to assist TNB Sdn. Bhd. in Malaysia to reduce its NTLs in the LPC
distribution sector. Remote meters installed at premises of LPC customers transmit power
consumption data including remote meter events wirelessly to TNB Metering Services Sdn.

Bhd. The remote meter reading (RMR) consumption data for TNB LPC customers is
recorded based on half-hourly intervals.
2.1. Types of Theft of Electricity
There are various types of electrical power theft done in all over the world. Many slums all
over the world survive mainly by meeting the energy needs from tapping electricity.
Direct Hooking from Line
It is the most used method for theft of power. 80% of total power theft all over the world is
done by direct tapping from line.95% the total power theft is done by direct tapping in our
country. The consumer has tapped supply from a point ahead of the energy meter. This
energy is totally unmeasured energy. It is taken from the consumer premises with or without
switches.
Bypassing the Energy Meter
In this method the input terminal and output terminal of the energy meter has been shorted by
a wire. So energy cannot be registered in the energy meter.
Drilling Holes in Electromechanical Meter
Drilling holes is a visible type tampering attack on energy meter. This type of tampering is
done in electro mechanical type conventional energy meter. The consumer can insert any
foreign material inside the meter to obstruct the free movement of the rotating disc. There is a
gap between the disc and the magnet. The temporary objects used to slow down the
movement of the disc are pin. Middle, etc.

3. SYSTEM DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
On this chapter the required hard ware and software parts are described in detail and the
system overviews and design and analysis will continue.
3.1. Overview of the System
The complete system is made up of multiple GSM integrated power meters installed
in the city, SMS gateway, Application Terminal, Database Server Printer and Web server.
With every power meter there is one additional digital current sensor The GSM integrated
power meter is working in conjunction with the GSM network to send theft notification
signal to central station and retrieve power meter reading from customers. The GSM
integrated power meter is a type meter which utilizes the GSM network to send theft
notification message to the central station. It also sends the power usage reading back to the
energy provider wirelessly upon request from the energy provider SMS gateway. The GSM
integrated Power Meter is the integration of energy meter, current sensor, GSM modem and
through microcontroller. The current sensor, is installed at the pole and measures the current
branching to that specific customer from main line. A SIM card with a unique special service
number is require for the GSM power meter to receive and to reply its meter reading and
notification to the energy provider using SMS. The special service number SIM card is
working similarly with mobile phone number except it is not meant for voice service. The
SIM card service number is also use to identify and retrieve the owner or customer details
from the database server for billing purposes.
On the Central station side the electric power saver application software was installed
in the application terminal where the energy provider operator uses to perform meter reading
routine in the monthly interval through the GSM network and manage incoming meter
reading and theft notification signals. The microcontroller always reads both the digital
power meter and digital current sensor output . If there is a significant difference between the
two reading the microcontroller automatically sends SMS to central station indicating the
theft and customer information. Upon meter reading execution the SMS gateway performs
cell board casting of request SMS to all GSM power meter to request for their meter reading.
Once each individual GSM power meter received the request SMS from the energy provider
SMS gateway, they will immediately response by composing its reading in six digits kWh
unit and reply to the energy provider SMS gateway by SMS. All the received SMSes will be

stored in the SMS gateway. The retrieval of individual meter through GSM SMS for the
whole country may take some time depends on the network traffic and weather condition for
the particular GSM base transceiver station. Upon completion within a given period of time,
the EPsaver will start to sort the received SMS according to the area based on the GSM
power meter number. From the sorted list it also look for any non-reply GSM power meter
due to SMS data packet loss and compiled a list for second request. After second request is
executed and if there is still no reply, a field engineer will be sent to carryout field inspection
on the particular faulty GSM meter to rectify the problem. After the completion of the meter
reading request the application terminal will starts to retrieve the meter reading from the SMS
gateway and to store and update to the database server accordingly. From the database
EPsaver will starts to calculate the billing amount for an individual meter base on the tariff
rate from the energy provider. The billing notifications are send to an individual owner by
SMS through SMS gateway.
Generally the proposed detection and monitoring systems consist of three primary
components.
1. Meter interface module: with power supply, meter sensors, controlling electronics and a
communication interface that allows data to be transmitted from this remote device to a
central location. In many instances, this communication interface is bi-directional and allows
central office signals to be received by the remote unit as well. Every electric meter must
have such an interface unit to be remotely read.
2. Communications systems: used for the transmission, or telemetry, of data and control send
signals between the meter interface units and the central office. Typically, such
communications take the form of telephone, power line carrier ,radio frequency (RF), or
cable television, GSM. For this system we have used GSM network for communication.
3. Central office systems equipment: including modems, receivers, and host computer.
3.2. System Component and Building blocks
i) Hardware
1. ARDUINO
This arduino the most important that part performs all necessary manipulation and processing
work to identify the theft . It also connects GSM and power meter and sending a message to

the central station when needed. Our project takes up the help of the micro controller to btain
Quick, swift and accurate responses.
Figure 1 Ardiuno
Summary:
Microcontroller ATmega328
Operating Voltage 5V
Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V
Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V
Digital I/O Pins 14 (of which 6 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins 6
DC Current per I/O Pin 40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin 50 mA
Flash Memory 32 KB (ATmega328) of which 0.5 KB used by bootloader
SRAM 2 KB (ATmega328)
EEPROM 1 KB (ATmega328)
Clock Speed 16 MHz
POWER:
The power pins are as follows:

VIN. The input voltage to the Arduino board when it's using an external power
5V.This pin outputs a regulated 5V from the regulator on the board.
3V3. A 3.3 volt supply generated by the on-board regulator.
GND. Ground pins.
IOREF. This pin on the Arduino board provides the voltage reference with which the
microcontroller operates
Input And Output:
Each of the 14 digital pins on the Uno can be used as an input or output, using pinMode (),
digitalWrite (), and digitalRead () functions. They operate at 5 volts. Each pin can provide or
receive a maximum of 40 mA and has an internal pull-up resistor (disconnected by default) of
20-50 kOhms. In addition, some pins have specialized functions:
Serial: 0 (RX) and 1 (TX). Used to receive (RX) and transmit (TX) TTL serial data. These
pins are connected to the corresponding pins of the ATmega8U2 USB-to-TTL Serial chip.
External Interrupts: 2 and 3. These pins can be configured to trigger an interrupt on a low
value, a rising or falling edge, or a change in value.
PWM: 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11. Provide 8-bit PWM output with the analogWrite () function.
SPI: 10 (SS), 11 (MOSI), 12 (MISO), 13 (SCK). These pins support SPI communication
using the SPI library.
LED: 13. There is a built-in LED connected to digital pin 13. When the pin is HIGH value,
the LED is on, when the pin is LOW, it's off.
2. GSM MODEM
This GSM Modem can accept any GSM network operator SIM card and act just like a mobile
phone with its own unique phone number. Advantage of using this modem will be that you
can use its RS232 port to communicate and develop embedded applications. Applications like
SMS Control, data transfer, remote control and logging can be developed easily.
The modem can either be connected to PC serial port directly or to any microcontroller. It can
be used to send and receive SMS or make/receive voice calls. It can also be used in GPRS
mode to connect to internet and do many applications for data logging and control. In GPRS
mode you can also connect to any remote FTP server and upload files for data logging.
This GSM modem is a highly flexible plug and play quad band GSM modem for direct and
easy integration to RS232 applications. Supports features like Voice, SMS, Data/Fax, GPRS
and integrated TCP/IP stack.

Figure 2 GSM Modem and its SIM card

FEATURES
 Highly Reliable for 24x7 operation with Matched Antenna
 Status of Modem Indicated by LED
 Simple to Use
 Quad Band Modem supports all GSM operator SIM card
QUICK START GUIDE

 Insert SIM card: Press the yellow pin to remove the tray from the SIM cardholder.
After properly fixing the SIM card in the tray, insert the tray in the slot provided.
 Connect Antenna: Screw the RF antenna if not already connected.
 Connect RS232 Cable to PC/MCU: (Cable provided for RS232 communication).
Default baud rate is 9600 with 8-N-1, no hardware handshaking.
 Connect the power Supply (12V 1A) to the power input of board. Polarity should be
Center +ve and outer –ve DC jack.
 Network Led indicating various status of GSM module eg. Power on, network
registration & GPRS connectivity.
After the Modem registers the network, led will blink in step of 3 seconds. At this stage you
can start using Modem for your application. AT commands can be sent to control GSM
Modem.
GUIDE TO SEND AND RECEIVE SMS
For sending SMS in text Mode:
 AT+CMGF=1 press enter
 AT+CMGS=”mobile number” press enter
 Once The AT commands is given‟ >‟ prompt will be displayed on the screen.

Type the message to send via SMS. After this, press “ctrl+Z” to send the SMS.
 If the SMS sending is successful, “ok” will be displayed along with the message
number.
For reading SMS in the text mode:

 AT+CMGF=1 Press enter
 AT+CMGR= no.
Number (no.) is the message index number stored in the sim card. For new SMS, URC will
be received on the screen as +CMTI: SM „no‟. Use this number in the AT+CMGR number to
read the message.
POWER SUPPLY REQUIREMENT
Use DC Power Adaptor with following ratings
 DC Voltage: 12V
 DC Current Rating at least: 1A
 DC Socket Polarity: Centre +ve & Outside –ve
 Current consumption in normal operation 250mA, can rise up to 1Amp peak while
transmission so your power supply should be able to handle at least 1Amp current.
Power supply is included in the packaging of this product.
SERIAL CABLE DETAILS
Serial Cable provided has following pins connected with RS232 level (+12V / -12V) output
 Pin 2 is RS232 level TX output
 Pin 3 is RS232 level RX input
 Pin 5 is Ground
3.CURRENT SENSOR
In this section we design a current sensor using resistive current sensor method. Inserting a
low-valued sense resistor in series with a current path produces a small voltage drop, which
can then be amplified to serve as an output signal proportional to current. Depending on the
application environment and the sense resistor's placement, however, this technique can
create various challenges for the sense amplifier. If the sense resistor is placed between the
load and the circuit ground, the resulting voltage drop can be amplified using a simple op
amp Called low-side current sensing, this approach differs from high-side sensing, in which

the sense resistor is placed between the supply and the load. Not only does this placement
eliminate the ground disturbances found in low-side sensing, it also allows the detection of
accidental battery shorts to system ground. The value of the sense resistor should be as low
as possible to keep power dissipation in check, but high enough to generate a voltage
detectable by the sense amplifier, within the accuracy desired. Current sensing circuit using a
resistive shunt measures a voltage drop across a small resistor And uses ohms law to
determine the current being drawn from the power source to the load. Using a high side
measurement places this resistor between the source and the load.
Figure 3 Current Sensor
This circuit converts the differential voltage (VS) measured across RS into an output current
which is then converted back into a ground referenced voltage through R2.VS is impressed
across resistor R1, which in turn results in a current VS/R1.To maintain a stable feedback
condition, where the two input terminals of the op amp are maintained at the same voltage,
the op amp‟s output must bias the output transistor so as to draw this current out of the node,
and pass it down to R2.

4. SERVER
A server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs (and their
users) in the same or other computers. or A server is a computer, or set of computers which
process all the data that takes place inside of the system. Server computers are responsible for
receiving and sending information back.
5. MISCELLANEOUS
LED, Resistor ,Jumper

Capacitor,
Opamp,
Diode
ii) Software
A. Microsoft Visual Studio C#
B. Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft.
As a database, it is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as
requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running
on another computer across a network (including the Internet). There are at least a dozen
different editions of Microsoft SQL Server aimed at different audiences and for different
workloads (ranging from small applications that store and retrieve data on the same
computer, to millions of users and computers that access huge amounts of data from the
Internet at the same time). Its primary query languages are T-SQL and ANSI SQL.
Supported Operating System
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, Windows XP Service
Pack 2
o Computer with Intel or compatible Pentium III 600 MHz or faster processor (1
GHz or faster is recommended.)
o Minimum of 192 MB of RAM (512 MB or more is recommended.)
o 100 MB of available hard disk space

C. Ozeki NG SMS gate way
Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway will use a GSM phone/modem attached to your PC (with a
phone-to-PC data cable) or an IP SMS connection to send messages. Your C#.NET
application will insert a row into the database to send messages using the Ozeki NG program.
For a better understanding of how it works, please look at the following diagram (Figure 1).
Figure 4 Sending SMS from an C#.NET application
In the diagram you can see a user with the C#.NET application, an SQL Server, Ozeki NG -
SMS Gateway, a mobile phone attached to the server computer and a mobile user receiving
the message. Wherever the user is, if their C# application is appropriately configured (the
configuration requires information related to the MS SQL server), they can compose and send
messages to any recipients. After the user's action, the C#.NET application inserts a row with
the data of the SMS to be sent, which will be selected by Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway from the
database. Ozeki NG will forward the message to the GSM network through a mobile phone
attached to the PC with a data cable, and the mobile user will receive the SMS message.
D. Arduino 1.0.4 C++

This is the language used by ardiuno to program and load the hardware of ardiuno circuit
board.

3.3. System Design and Analysis
A. Hardware Part
The basic working principle of this system is the comparison of the total load supplied by the
distribution transformer to the specific customer in the pole and the total load used by the
consumers connected to that pole as shown in the block diagram fig below.An electronic
energy meter with GSM modem is placed at each of the consumer terminal. It measures the
total load (energy) used by the consumers and it transfers to the arduino. And this reading is
compared with the energy meter reading of the current sensor placed at the pole. If both the
values are the same, then there is no problem (neglecting the losses in transmission in the
cable). However if the value of the energy meter reading is greater than the consumer‟s meter
reading, then it is the case of power theft. Using this error signal we can detect the power
theft. This error signal is sent to the arduino controller. If there is difference it sends to a
central station a message which has full information about the intruder.
Figure 5 General description of the system

Figure 6 General system block diagram
In general:
 There are two meters in the system

 Energy Meter 1 is one which is installed on the Electric Pole
 Energy Meter 2 is directly before it enters to the meter reading installed by
the EEPCO and
 Both of the meter give their data as an input to arduino
If there is a difference between the two meter reading the arduino initiate the system and
sends SMS to the central station and turn off the meter. The arduino is used to compare the
data that come from the energy meter and the current sensor and put some valuable decision.

In case of the GSM it help us to receive and send data from the arduino to central station
and vice versa.
The measured data from the meters and current sensor are sent to Ardiuno, which is
placed with energy meter at subscriber‟s locations. On the other hand, current sensor (energy
meter in the pole) located at the connection points are read and the energy in kilowatt-hours
and also send the data to Ardiono . This proposed detector system has two recorded energy
data in host Arduino, one, which comes from the energy meter, and the other, which comes
from the current sensor at the connection points. These two recorded energy data are
compared in Arduino; if there is any difference between two readings, an error signal is
generated. This means that there is an illegal usage of electric power in the network. After
that, the subscriber address and error signal are combined and sent to the central control unit
using the GSM connected to Ardiuno. If it is requested, a contactor may be included to the
system at subscriber locations to turn off the energy automatically, as in the case of illegal
usage.
B. Software
The ardiuno reads the readings from current sensor through analogue input pin and compares
the readings of the input if the result is not equal the it will send SMS to the central station.
The flow chart of the code is shown below.
Figure 7 Flow chart of ardiuno power comparison code

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In this project a proposed power theft control system which saves electricity from
being theft due to lack of monitoring system. We are monitoring the line load current of the
system that enters to the house continuously using different meters. There are two meters in
the system. Energy Meter 1(current sensor) is one which is installed on the Electric Pole and
Energy Meter 2 is directly before it enters to the meter reading installed by the EEPCO. Both
of the meter give their data as an input to arduino .If then there is no problem, meaning if the
two readings are the same (neglecting the losses in transmission and distribution) nothing will
happen. However if the value of the external energy meter reading is greater than the
consumer‟s meter reading, then there exists some power theft. As a result, it has to transmit a
message signal through the GSM modem to the central processing unit. This system will
automatically detect when there is any attempt of theft and save electricity.
In this section we design a current sensor using resistive current sensor method which
used to measure the load current continuously. Inserting a low-valued senser resistor in series
with a current path produces a small voltage drop, which can then be amplified to serve as an
output signal proportional to current the final and the most important part performs all
necessary manipulation and processing work. This processing work is done by the arduino,
which performs the final identification and indication by sending a message to the central
station
As stated in the objectives, this project aims at eliminating some of the challenges
associated with the existing systems of monitoring the power theft in remote station. The
project has been successfully completed and is in proper working condition.

5.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION
In this project work power theft control system which saves electricity from being
theft due to lack of monitoring system is proposed.in addition it also used to read monthly
reading remotely being at the central station without sending people which minimizes highly
the cost invested to meter readers. The basic working principle of this system is the
comparison of the total load (energy) supplied by the distribution transformer to the specific
customer in the pole and the total load used by the consumers connected to that pole. Both
reading are feed to the processing section if there is a difference assume that there is a theft so
it sends a message to responsible office. This system controls the intruders in the event of
theft and saves electricity.
With its usage, the crime of stealing power may be brought to an end and thereby a
new bloom may be expected in the economy of our motherland. Thus by the above
mentioned design we can successfully and effectively address the problems related to power
theft by the consumers, in a completely automated, wire-free, cost effective and most
importantly a reliable way.

RECOMMENDATION
The ministry of energy, the Ethiopia electric power corporation and our government
should embrace this project and invest in it, so as to reduce the rate at which people illegally
tapped onto electrical supply lines. In order to bring fair economical competition between
different firms in the country regardless of their ownership. In addition to this it helps the
government specially the minister of capacity building to save a lot of money that would be
lost due to illegal usage of electricity so that it can expand the infrastructure across the nation.
It can also help EEPCO in order to facilitate remote billing system which reduce the
cost of electricity and satisfies the customer need.

REFERENCES
[1] Donald G, Wayne H.Beaty, “Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers” 11th
Edition, McGraw Hill, 2003, New York.
[2] Croft, Terrell, Summers, Wilford I, “American Electricians' Handbook” 11th Edition,
McGraw Hill, 2008 New York.
[3]. H.G.Rodney, Tan IEEE, C.H.Lee and V.H.Mok, IEEE “Automatic Power meter Reading
system using GSM Network” Proceeding of the 8th international Power Engineering
Conference (IPEC-07) 2007,
[4]. Md. Wasi- ur-Rahman, Mohammad Tanvir Rahman, Tareq Hasan Khan and S.M. Lutful
Kabir “Design of an Intelligent SMS Based Remote Metering System”
[5].Bharat Kulkarni, “GSM Based Automatic Meter Reading System Using ARM Controller”

APPENDIX
1. Ardiuno Code to Send SMS to central station

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
const int rxpin = 2; // pin used to receive

const int txpin = 3; // pin used to transmit
SoftwareSerial gsm(rxpin, txpin); // new serial port on pins 2 and 3
char phoneNumber[] = "+251913941455";
int sensorPin = A0; // select the input pin for the potentiometer
int sensorPin1 = A1;
int ledPin = 13; // select the pin for the LED
int ledPin1 = 12;
int sensorValue = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the sensor
int sensorValue1 = 0;
void setup() {
// declare the ledPin as an OUTPUT:
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledPin1, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600); // 9600 baud for the built-in serial port
gsm.begin(9600); //initialize the software serial port also for 9600
delay(35000);
}
void loop() {
// read the value from the sensor:
sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin);
sensorValue1 = analogRead(sensorPin1);
// turn the ledPin on
if(sensorValue!=sensorValue1){
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(ledPin1, LOW);

//delay(2000);
gsm.println("AT");
delay(500);
gsm.println("AT+CMGF=1"); // set SMS mode to text
delay(500);
gsm.print("AT+CMGS="); // now send message...
gsm.write((byte)34);// ASCII equivalent of "
gsm.print(phoneNumber);
gsm.write((byte)34); // ASCII equivalent of "
gsm.println();
delay(500);
gsm.print("Theft detected "); // our message to be sent
gsm.write((byte)26); // ASCII equivalent of Ctrl-Z
gsm.println();
delay(15000); // The GSM module needs to return to an OK status
{
delay(1);
}
while (1>0); // if you remove this you will get a text message every 30 seconds or so.
}
else
{
digitalWrite(ledPin1, HIGH);
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
//delay(2000);
}
}

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June 22, 2013 [Electric Power Theft Controlling System]

BAHIR DAR UNIVERSITY

[ELECTRIC POWER THEFT CONTROLLING SYSTEM]

IN PARTIAL FULLFILMENT OF THE REQUIRMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING (COMPUTER ENGINEERING)

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | DECLARATION 1

Electric Power Theft Controlling System

Adane Abera [ENG/R/0066/2001]

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 1

Student: AdaneAbera, AmanuelAbebe, Atirsaw Awoke, DawitAlemseged

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | DECLARATION 1

ACKNOWLEGMENT .......................................................................................................................... iii

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | ii

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | iii

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | iv

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | v

Figure 1 Ardiuno ...................................................................................................................... 11

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | vi

Table 1 Result of Bahir Dar EEPCO ......................................................................................... 3

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | vii

LIST OF SYMBOLS AND NOTATIONS

PCB Printed Circuit Board

LED Light Emitted Diode

GSM Global System for Mobile Telecommunication

EEPCO Ethiopian Electric power Corporation

NWR North West Region

TNB Tenaga Nasional Berhad

NTL Non-Technical losses

EEPROM Electrical Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory

LPC Large Power Consumers

RMR Remote meter reading

AMR Automatic Meter Reading

SMS Short Message Service

PIN Personal Identification Number

EPsaver Electric Power saver (name of the software developed)

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | viii

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | DECLARATION 1

Billing irregularities is a manifestation of corruption in the utility company through

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 2

Below are some of the common methods of identifying electricity theft:

Table 1 Result of Bahir Dar EEPCO

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 3

1.3 Problem Description

Electric power transmission and distribution companies in developing countries

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 4

The objectives of this project are:

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 5

1.5 Organization of the project

1.6 Scope of the project

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 6

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 7

2.1. Types of Theft of Electricity

Direct Hooking from Line

Bypassing the Energy Meter

Drilling Holes in Electromechanical Meter

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 8

3. SYSTEM DESIGN AND ANALYSIS

3.1. Overview of the System

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 9

3.2. System Component and Building blocks

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 10

BDU | IOT, SCEE, June 2012 | 11