How does a startup utilities help spot energy theft

The company founded in 2009 and is located in Vancouver, Canada, a U.S. utility, the to the agreed Awesense the new distribution model, Mischa Steiner Jadhav, CEO of Awesense, said recently signed. Instead of selling the equipment and software outright, Awesense can make the installation of systems and data to finance crunch and money by using a percentage of revenue, the by stop the theft of the energy or the charging of a fee is always. Steiner Jadhav declined to name of the utility disclose, has opted for the service contract.

Power company in Malaysia, Turkey, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic plan to carry out by trying with Awesense' technology from this quarter, he added. Fortis BC British Columbia among its customers.

About $220 billion worth of electricity is lost every year due to theft or technical problems with the grid, according to a report of the World Bank in 2009. But, the most losses are due to technical problems, not. Energy theft is a major problem in India: about 27 percent is illegal, according to his Government diverted. Theft is $6 billion per year in the United States, according to this report.

"Makes the most thefts bypass the meter, so that it is difficult for utilities to determine where they occur," Steiner Jovic said.

Home technology consists of portable sensors, the up to 10-inches tall, 1 inch wide and 10 cm deep and weighs less than one kilogram. You can utility workers on wires, clip, where the sensors the current measurement and calculate the energy (in kWh), which flows through the pipe. Through the wireless network of the startup, the data goes back to Awesense of the Center for analysis and utility available to its customers.

The company has designed its technology for the distribution network, because that is where most makes theft takes place. The distribution network is also less efficient than the transmission because it lowers electricity in need of high-voltage lines, sends the voltages on the way and the electricity to homes and businesses.

The height of the sensors and how tightly they are depend on what would achieve a utility. It wants simply to monitor the flow of energy on a line, say, 100, cable households, could install it on this line a sensor. When determining exactly where more accurately energy losses will occur, would it move sensors or add more of them to home in on the cause, which could be stolen or technical problems.

A utility provides the data flows through good data on how much energy and is used in a particular area, said Steiner Jovic. Otherwise find out total damage is based primarily on the numbers that show how much power it generated or bought and how much they sold.

Since the Awesense flow of energy and the demand takes equipment warehouse, it could also help utilities to find out, where you must add new distribution lines or install power generation equipment such as solar panels, is to feed the demand.

By selling their services rather than its equipment and software, Awesense can serve utilities that don't want to invest the capital or manage the sensor and data collection employees. Also reduces risk for utilities that are known to take a while to apply new technologies until the and would probably prefer a service to buy, rather than invest in plants from a startup, not long enough to provide maintenance and warranties meet, can hold.

Awesense increases the first equity round last year, but Steiner Jovic declined to say how much.

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