Why the Numbers Don't Balance
Electrical distribution loss is one of the persistent operational problems in utility management, and field audit teams that rely on verbal reporting or handwritten forms produce data that is too inconsistent to generate the analytical picture that drives intervention decisions. PERDIDA and PERCENT PERDIDA — the calculated loss and loss percentage between totalizador delivery and the sum of customer consumption plus street lighting — are the numbers that flag distribution fraud, metering error, and installation anomalies. But those numbers are only actionable when the field data that produces them is captured consistently, per service point, with enough supporting context to diagnose the cause.
A field team that finishes an inspection route and submits a paper form with illegible anomaly codes and no prior reading for comparison has produced an inspection record that cannot be used for anything except filing.
The Reading Comparison Structure
LECTURA PREVIA and LECTURA ACTUAL — prior reading versus current reading — establish the consumption delta for the period. ENTREGA captures what the totalizador delivered at the transformer or distribution point. CONS_CLIENTES and CONS_ALUMBRADO capture what the customers and street lighting consumed. PERDIDA is the difference.
MULTIPLO — the CT ratio multiplier — is the field that converts the raw register reading into actual kWh delivered. A meter with a MULTIPLO of 40 recording a difference of 250 between prior and current readings has actually delivered 10,000 kWh, not 250. An inspector who records the raw reading without the multiplier is recording a number that cannot be reconciled against billing data without knowing which multiplier was in use at the time of the reading.
The CT field records the current transformer data — the instrument that steps down the primary current for metering in high-load service points. A totalizador on a medium-voltage feeder serving a residential block through a CT installation requires the CT ratio to be verified at each inspection as part of the metering accuracy audit.
Anomaly Classification as the Operational Output
ANOMALIA and MOTIVO are the multichoice fields that convert the field observation into a structured, queryable record.
ANOMALIA classifies the overall finding: normal installation, irregular totalizador installation, meter in poor condition, non-existent meter, technology change required. These are the five states that determine what action the inspection generates. Normal installation produces a reading record. Medidor inexistente produces an emergency work order. Irregular installation produces a loss investigation case.
MOTIVO records the specific technical cause for non-normal installations — and the list captures the full range of field findings: TOROIDE INVERTIDO (inverted toroid, which reverses the meter's counting direction), BAQUELITA PUENTEADA (bakelite bridged, bypassing the meter), LINEA DIRECTA (direct connection, bypassing the meter entirely), SIN SELLO (missing seal, indicating possible tampering), FASE MENOS (missing phase), among others. These are not administrative categories — they are specific diagnostic findings that determine the regulatory response, the loss recovery calculation, and the technical work order.
TECNOLOGIA — TELEMEDIDO versus NO TELEMEDIDO — captures whether the installation has remote metering capability. This field drives the routing for readings: telemedida installations produce automatic readings that don't require physical visits for consumption capture, while non-remote installations require field visits per billing cycle. The audit creates the basis for tracking which installations in a circuit have been upgraded and which remain on manual reading.
LECTURA INSTALACION, LECTURA LEVANTAMIENTO, and LECTURA INTERVENCION record the reading at the time of installation, at the time of the field survey (levantamiento), and at the time of any intervention or replacement — the three-point reading sequence that closes the accounting for any period where metering anomalies are identified and corrected.
FECHA INSTALACION tied to the TIPO CONEXION — the connection type (mixed, panel, armored network, conventional network) — gives the installation history context that matters when evaluating whether an anomaly is a new event or a degraded legacy condition.