Lightweight LSTM Model for Energy Theft Detection via Input Data Reduction

Abstract

With the increasing integration of smart meters in electrical grids worldwide, detecting energy theft has become a critical and ongoing challenge. Artificial intelligence (AI)-based models have demonstrated strong performance in identifying fraudulent consumption patterns; however, previous works exploring the use of machine learning solutions for this problem demand high computational and energy costs, limiting their practicality -- particularly in low-theft scenarios where continuous inference can result in unnecessary energy usage. This paper proposes a lightweight detection unit, or watchdog mechanism, designed to act as a pre-filter that determines when to activate a long short-term memory (LSTM) model. This mechanism reduces the volume of input fed to the LSTM model, limiting it to instances that are more likely to involve energy theft thereby preserving detection accuracy while substantially reducing energy consumption associated with continuous model execution. The proposed system was evaluated through simulations across six scenarios with varying theft severity and number of active thieves. Results indicate a power consumption reduction exceeding 64\%, with minimal loss in detection accuracy and consistently high recall. These findings support the feasibility of a more energy-efficient and scalable approach to energy theft detection in smart grids. In contrast to prior work that increases model complexity to achieve marginal accuracy gains, this study emphasizes practical deployment considerations such as inference efficiency and system scalability. The results highlight the potential for deploying sustainable, AI-assisted monitoring systems within modern smart grid infrastructures.