Mahavitaran uses AI to detect Rs 66 crore power theft in three months

Mahavitaran has stepped up its crackdown on power theft in Nagpur, turning to artificial intelligence to make detection more effective.

More than 190 special flying squads inspected electricity connections across Maharashtra, and detailed analysis by the AI module uncovered power theft worth over Rs 66.28 crore in the last three months. Criminal cases have been registered with police in 289 cases where consumers had not paid the theft amount or the compounding fee.

Explaining how the technology works, Mahavitaran said it has developed a module using AI and machine learning that can accurately estimate power theft. The module keeps round-the-clock watch on historical consumption data of consumers or a particular area, sudden spikes or drops in demand, technical tampering with meters, and more than 50 other technical parameters.

Consumers whose electricity consumption shows unusual or suspicious variation are automatically placed by the AI module in a "high risk" category. This allows theft locations to be identified without the need for prior investigation.

To ensure there is no slack anywhere in this drive against power theft across Maharashtra, the entire process from inspection of connections to billing has been fully digitised through a "Theft Tracking and Monitoring System". A separate mobile app has also been developed for this purpose.

From June to August, Mahavitaran's regular and special squads detected a total of 27,964 cases of power theft across Maharashtra. These included 5,083 cases in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar regional division, 11,083 in Konkan, 5,949 in Nagpur and 5,849 in the Pune regional division.