Energy Losses
The energy losses can be translated as the electric energy generated that passes through the transmission lines (Basic Network) and distribution networks, but that is not commercialized, either for technical or commercial reasons.
Concepts
Technical losses are inherent to the activity of electricity distribution, as part of the energy is dissipated in the process of transportation, voltage transformation and measurement due to the laws of physics. These losses, therefore, are associated with the loading and configuration characteristics of the distribution concessionaires’ networks. The amounts of technical losses are normally divided by the injected energy, which is the electrical energy inserted in the distribution network to serve consumers, including losses.
Non-technical losses, ascertained by the difference between total losses and technical losses, originate mainly from thefts (clandestine connection, direct diversion from the network), fraud (adulteration in the meter or deviations), reading, measurement and billing errors. These losses, also popularly called “cats”, are largely associated with the management of the concessionaire and the socioeconomic characteristics of the concession areas.
Criteria
In order to determine the Company’s total losses, the measurement reports with the contracting load and the distributor’s border are taken into account, the injection of non-modeled energy at Chamber of Electric Energy Commercialization (CCEE) and the energy consumption reports extracted from the internal consumer management system (CIS).
Copel Distribuição maintains a Program to Combat Non-Technical Losses that consists of several actions that aim to reduce or maintain the current level of non-technical losses, through the following actions:-
- Improvement of actions to combat the Irregular Procedure, improving the performance of inspections.
- Investments for the provision and acquisition of tools and equipment for inspection.
- Elaboration and execution of specific training and recycling related to commercial losses.
- Carrying out inspections, both at Medium and Low Voltage.
- Educational notes in the press and messages on the invoice.
- Constant mapping of the situation of clandestine connections at Copel, through the identification of areas and the number of families with clandestine connections.
- Continuous improvement in the management of the process to combat non-technical losses.
- Investment in teams and technology to perform public lighting (IP) counting throughout Copel DIS’s concession area.
Monitoring
Due to the actions taken, the effectiveness of inspections has increased significantly in recent years, from 11.1% in 2012 to 16.8% in 2020, when 79,352 inspections were made and 16,205 irregular procedures were detected. Prospecting, for carrying out inspections, is done through the use of the information available in the registration of consumer units, installation of tax measurement and analysis of niches of fraudsters installed in the various classes of consumption.
The process of revitalizing and modernizing the equipment that makes up the distributor’s network, through the Paraná Trifásico and Smart Electric Networks programs, will also contribute to reducing losses. The consolidation of these projects will bring gradual results over the next five years.
This information is published annually in the management reports and is available in the Results Center.
