Detecting And Minimizing Electricity Theft: A Review Sana Sardar Department of Electrical engineering Iqra National University Peshawar, Pakistan. sanasardar@inu.edu.pk Sanaullah Ahmad Department of Electrical Engineering Iqra National University Peshawar, Pakistan. sanaullah@inu.edu.pk Abstract— Electricity theft is the difference between the power supplied and user’s consumption, in the distribution system. Efficient utilization and conservation of energy is the major priority of all power utilities, transmitting the generated power to customer loads through transmission and distribution systems. However, existing transmission system, suffer from technical losses in electrical equipments and non-technical losses in the distributed circuits. Distributed losses are mainly caused due to theft of supplied electricity at the customer premises. Therefore, it is necessary to design smarter techniques at the distribution system, which are capable of detecting and minimizing thefts at the customer premises. This paper evaluates the well-known techniques including observer meter, smart meters, and smart prepaid energy metering system, which are used to minimize theft in distribution system. Index Terms— Electricity Metering, Electricity Theft, Smart Meters, Observer Meter , Smart Prepaid Energy Meter. [1] INTRODUCTION Electric power from generation to distribution network: consumer’s end, plays an important role in operation of many electrical equipments and devices which are necessary for human life. Looking around, one can understand the need of electricity. To fulfill this need, electricity generation is pumped to meet the user’s demand in a reliable and most efficient way. Generation companies do well for generating electricity from various power plants and connecting this generated power to the national grids for further bulk power transmission. As power transmission is done by increasing the voltage levels for long distances, a step-up transformer is used. Which transmit this power to the distribution circuit through long transmission lines. Some of the power loss occurs in transmission system due to electrical equipments, as technical losses. Transmitted power is now fed to a substation for its distribution to users at lower voltages, using a step-down transformer. The whole power system is depicted in figure 1. The losses which effects the revenue of power utilities is mainly dependent on losses at distribution end, due to non- technical losses. Electricity theft is the major factor causing non-technical losses. Electricity theft is actually difference between how much units are consumed by users and what they have paid for their consumption. Power distribution companies have installed different types of energy meters which can measure the consumption rate and also detect electricity theft in advance metering infrastructure. In this review paper, comparison between different electricity theft detection techniques is done. Fig 1. Electrical Network. [2] ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEM Energy is a necessary input in creation models along with capital, technology and labor and its sustainable supply at reasonable prices is estimated for a modern economy. It is therefore, a permanent constraint to output development. Electricity shortfall effect economic development, causes joblessness, and increases the cost of manufacturing and doing businesses. Various studies specify the relationship among economic development and electricity consumption either through a demand-side model [1]. To full fill the demand of electricity consumers we need to have some good generating stations with well equipped generating plants and efficient generation capacity [2]. Generating plants are usually located near a source to fully utilize the flowing water in case of hydropower generation or other sources as per type of generating plant , Electrical