ESCONDIDO, Calif., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Detectent, Inc., a pioneer in theft of service detection for the utility industry, announced today that Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc., a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. , has partnered with Detectent to target theft of service and create a detection solution to proactively monitor and detect theft of service cases within the utility industry.

In 2004, Con Edison recognized that recent economic trends had the potential to increase theft of service occurrences. To combat this concern, Con Edison looked for new ways to generate better lists of potential culprits for its Revenue Protection field investigation team while also capturing the 30 years of experience already developed. Encapsulating the knowledge this team had already acquired within a computer system would avoid a loss of process and revenue when the most experienced staff retires.

"Knowledge that has been gained over the years through field experience and hard work must be preserved and intelligent computer software systems are one way to do that," says Charles Mormilo, general manager field operations, Con Edison.

Con Edison involved Detectent in the study of several years of past investigation reports and data patterns to identify both abnormal and normal usage patterns that could be captured and analyzed in an automated fashion. Key indicators and statistics by unique business type were also captured and compiled during this process. This intelligence was then encapsulated into software models that were able to detect theft of service cases from non-theft of service cases in a laboratory environment.

The next phase of the project transformed the set of tools into a commercial software suite. The software was then deployed to Con Edison's field investigation team and used to detect and investigate real cases of theft. The set of tools was branded as the RevEnhance product suite.

"The Con Edison/Detectent partnership has been the ultimate win/win scenario," says Michael Madrazo, President, Detectent, "Detectent brought the knowledge and capability of how to build such a system to the table while Con Edison added the expertise and field specific background resulting in a perfect pairing."

The RevEnhance product suite consists of five modules that work seamlessly together to increase the effectiveness of revenue protection teams. Current and historical customer consumption data, information about each business, and environmental conditions are combined and analyzed to identify cases of un-metered electric and gas service. A prioritized list of accounts is then delivered to an analyst for a final and comprehensive review. The investigation case management and performance measurement modules ensure that the results of all investigations are used to further improve the revenue protection cycle.

The state-of-the-art web-based architecture of RevEnhance provides a platform that allows collaboration between Con Edison and Detectent team members. In addition, RevEnhance has recently been extended to include field automation tools enabling investigators in the field to use the power of RevEnhance while onsite at a suspect location. One hand held tablet is being piloted in each of the Con Edison service areas.

"We have decades of experience identifying theft of service," says Jack Gaffney, section manager of revenue protection, Con Edison. "The Detectent technology has captured much of our expertise and has extended it by creating new ways of identifying abnormal patterns. We are in our third year with this technology and continue to find more than we did the first year," added Gaffney.

About Con Edison

Con Edison is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. , one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues and $25 billion in assets. The utility provides electric, gas and steam service to more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York. For additional financial, operations and customer service information, visit Con Edison's Web site at http://www.coned.com/ .

About Detectent, Inc.

Escondido, CA-based Detectent, Inc. assists utilities in proactively discovering cases of theft of service. Its experienced team of analysts utilizes state-of-the-art technology to perform a detailed analysis of a utility's account base. Detectent customers include NSTAR Electric, and We Energies. For more information, visit http://www.detectent.com/ .

CONTACT: Kristen Indriago for Detectent, Inc., office - +1-954-428-6974,
mobile - +1-954-592-5088, kindriago@detectent.com

Web Site: http://www.detectent.com/
http://www.coned.com/