BluTrend recently conducted a study comparing utility meter data with tenant data for four apartment owners with a total of 30,367 apartment units in de-regulated Texas markets. For 2007, we found 230 instances of meter disconnects that occurred after a CSA violation.  A CSA violation takes place when a new tenant moves into an apartment with a Continuous Service Agreement (CSA) and fails to enroll for electricity service under his name, as the lease requires.

CSA violations ultimately cost apartment owners millions of dollars in additional electricity expenses that are actually the responsibility of their tenants. To minimize this cost, apartment owners are forced to disconnect electricity to units with a CSA violation. However, they usually are unaware of what often happens next—meter tampering to get free electricity. Based on the results of our study, we estimate that electricity providers are losing in excess of $186 million a year due to meter tampering after a CSA disconnect in the United States.

Cost Analysis
In our study, we found that 112 tenants in 47 properties are still living in apartment units (as of January, 2008) where the electricity service was disconnected an average of 97.5 days for a total of 10,923 days. Some units have been occupied for more than 335 days after disconnection! There were also 118 tenants who moved out after occupying their units an average of 65.8 days following electrical disconnect—a total of 7,766 days. Overall, tenants used 30 to 284 occupancy days from disconnect to move out.

How can these 230 tenants live in their apartments for months without electricity? The only feasible answer is that they are tampering with the disconnected meter to get free service, undetected.

We estimate that lost revenue from the 112 tenants that are still living in their apartments will be about $161,000 per year, at a daily cost of $3.97 per unit (average 850 kWh per month consumption at 0.14 cents per kWh total charge). Applying these findings to the 2 million apartments in Texas, the electricity theft due to meter tampering after a CSA disconnect is estimated at $10.6 million per year in lost revenues. Applied to the 35 million apartments in the United States, the estimated loss is $186 million.