Smart Meters Help Brazil Zap Electricity Theft

Reading electricity meters is not typically a dangerous profession—unless you happen to be employed by AES Eletropaulo. Robson Dourado says residents of São Paulo’s Morro do Indio slum watch him warily as he makes his rounds, worried he’ll detect rogue wires siphoning away power illegally. Some co-workers have lost teeth in encounters with angry customers. To avoid confrontations with the street toughs who walk around with guns tucked into their trousers, Dourado, 28, practices a studied indifference. “I just keep on doing what I’m doing until they come speak to me,” he says. “If there’s trouble, I leave.”

Electricity theft is rampant across much of Latin America, so much so that statisticians have devised a formula that uses the purloined wattage to measure the size of a country’s informal economy. In some parts of Brazil, as much as 20 percent of electricity output is pinched. To combat the problem—and avoid violent encounters—utilities are turning to smart meters. The devices, which cost $150 to $400 apiece, allow power companies to monitor customers’ usage remotely and in real time. The meters can detect unusually heavy demand, which may signal an illegal hookup. They can also be used to shut off service to households and businesses that don’t pay their bills.