Design of Electricity Theft Monitoring System Using Differential Power Method Based on Internet of Thing

Abstract

Electricity theft by some unscrupulous people is very detrimental to PLN. Theft can be done by households or industries. The theft is not only financially detrimental to PLN but also damages the transformer in the distribution network due to overloading. In this research, a prototype of an electricity theft detection system integrated with the Internet of Thing (IoT) and mobile applications has been made using the differential power method. The differential power method compares real-time power measurements with a reference network average power, so that when the measured power exceeds the reference value, there is an indication of theft on the network. The sensor data processor and theft detection algorithm use an ESP8266 microcontroller. The test results show that the measurement errors of the voltage, current, and power sensors are 0.45%, 1.57%, and 1.15%, respectively. The data transmission delay from the microcontroller to the cloud is less than 1 second. The mobile application is able and successful to display measurement results and provide real-time theft alarm notifications