May 2016
1
FierceMarkets Custom Publishing
May 2016
1
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COMBATING UTILITY FRAUD RINGS
COMBATING UTILITY FRAUD RINGS
INTRODUCTION
A whirlwind of technology and regulatory changes continues to remake the power industry in
profound ways. Deregulation has driven disintermediation between those that produce power and
those that use it. Despite this change in landscape, one issue remains front and center: the ability
to deliver a superb customer experience. e noteworthy question for utilities is how to strike
that balance around optimizing the customer experience, minimizing operating expense, meeting
consumer requirements and mitigating loss. More succinctly, how to nurture a great experience
while defending against unscrupulous actors and outright fraud?
INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE
Today's energy landscape has been many years in the making with deregulation at the forefront of
change. Now in a deregulated market consumers can choose from third-party energy resellers for
their generation and transmission - a wealth of choice has generally been a good thing. However,
the proliferation of choices has led to some consumer confusion. Fraudsters have taken advantage
of the situation by setting up false accounts to perpetrate fraud against legitimate energy providers.
ese bad actors impact both end-users and utilities financially, and place additional resource
burdens on utilities to attempt to track down the source of the fraud. is has been particularly
pronounced in the application and service setup phase of energy delivery.
