Review on Temporal Convolutional Networks for Electricity Theft Detection with Limited Data

Electricity theft detection using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques have shown significant promise in recent research. However, practical implementation and widespread adoption of these advanced methods face several persistent challenges, particularly when dealing with limited data. This review delves into the computational complexity, data requirements, overfitting issues, and scalability and generalizability concerns associated with popular techniques such as Temporal Convolutional Networks (TCN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNN), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). Computational complexity and resource constraints affect the training times and convergence of TCN, LSTM, and DCNN, while high data needs and parameter tuning hinder MLP and GRU. The ANN-based method utilized by the Electricity Company of Ghana underscores overfitting and data duplication, further exacerbated by limited data availability. Moreover, the scalability and generalizability of TCN, LSTM, and DCNN across different regions and larger datasets are limited, with effectiveness varying based on electricity consumption patterns and theft tactics. Addressing these challenges through optimizing computational efficiency, improving data quality and utilization, and enhancing scalability and generalizability is crucial, especially in data-constrained environments. Continued research and development in these areas will be essential for realizing the full potential of AI-based electricity theft detection systems with limited data.