WHAT IS ELECTRICAL METER TAMPERING

WHAT IS ELECTRICAL METER TAMPERING-When any consumer put shunt resistance across   C T terminal to bypass current which is to be measured called meter tampering. this video shows with diagram and real clip to make clear concept.Meter tampering means doing anything that causes the meter to run slower or not at all. It also includes anything that is used to divert electricity around the electric meter. Meter tampering is theft of electricity from the power company. Electricity meter tampering comes in many shapes and sizes.

Probably one of the most common ways that I have personally seen electric meter tampering has been to turn the watthour meter upside down. The question is does this work? Yes and no. It depends on what type of watthour meter your system has. One may think that since you do not have digital meters that turning the meter upside down will always make the meter turn backwards. However, there were some high security meters that had registers that would measure the consumption in the correct direction regardless of whether the watthour meter was upside down or right side up.

Most digital watthour meters now have a built in detent so that it actually does not matter. They will still register correctly. But they can alert us to meter tampering. Also, electromechanical watthour meters that have AMR modules only count pulses. So, it does not matter if the disc is turning forward or backwards the ERT will still register correctly.

The second most common thing that I have seen when people steal power is when they pull the meter out and put something in its place. I have seen people put in kitchen knives, copper wire, jumper cables and basically anything metal to save money by stealing power.

Next, people will try to steal power by tampering with the meter itself. They will drill a hole in the meter cover and insert something in it to stop the disc. This works because most of the time it is undetectable because the customer will only do it at night. So long as they remember to take it out during the day the utility has a hard time detecting that the customer is stealing power.