Dive Summary:
- In this video excerpt, Anthony Haines, President and CEO of Toronto Hydro, underlines the role smart grid technology plays in helping the utility detect electricity theft.
- Haines estimates his utility company loses $10-12 million annually from energy theft; using smart grid technology, Toronto Hydro is usually able to track down the culprits, which Haines claims are usually 100-to-150 marijuana grow operations, and recover an estimated one-third of the lost proceeds.
- Haines claims energy thieves bypass meters and his utility has responded by installing meters "upstream" to ascertain exactly where the energy is going missing.
From the video:
"... What we have is all these meters firing information in. There's a couple things that allows us to do. No longer do we have a few SCADA points out there [and] you're trying to get a vague idea of what's happening in the system. Now, you've got this nervous system that's pulsating away and it's sending you back data, the control room is managing the loads like they never have, you're optimizing your asset use like you never have been able to before — and you're finding grow ops. ..."