Photo - ArcFlash Potential?

[Chamuit]

Came across this while bidding on a property that had all of it's feeder wires stolen.

These are the feeder wires directly from the POCO transformer. They were disconnected, taped up, and hung like this while energized.

These were the only wires left.

About $200,000 in damaged cabinets and missing wire.

 

[sparky=t]

looks like a professional job, somebody made some money!, to do that and not have a body laying there or any ground faults shows they have done this before!

 

[millelec]

big cajones for sure. it's amazing what people are capable of when you don't let things like ethics or morals bother you.

 

[mikeames]

Now when they turn that in for scrap is it not obvious? Wont a police report alert scap yards for 1000's of feet of wire?

 

[Chamuit]

I've wondered that myself. They must have a system or inside help.

 

[360Youth]

Not sure the inspector is going to like that duct tape.

 

[qcroanoke]

I've wondered that myself. They must have a system or inside help.

Yeah, If it was $200,000 worth of wire I'm sure they had the equipment needed to pull it out, and probably smart enough to not carry it to the scrap yard all at once.

 

[K8MHZ]

looks like a professional job, somebody made some money!, to do that and not have a body laying there or any ground faults shows they have done this before!

Also note the neutral was not disconnected.

Someone knew a little about what they were doing, that's for sure.

 

[K8MHZ]

Yeah, If it was $200,000 worth of wire I'm sure they had the equipment needed to pull it out, and probably smart enough to not carry it to the scrap yard all at once.

Scrap?

They will probably use it to be lowest bidder on another job somewhere.

 

[qcroanoke]

Scrap?

They will probably use it to be lowest bidder on another job somewhere.

Agreed,
thought about that aspect after it was too late to edit.

 

[dbuckley]

Gotta wonder if the thief had PPE gear on in case he screwed up...

 

[jxofaltrds]

Call OSHA, bet they had no PPE . The fine they give the thieves will cover the cost of the missing wire.

Edit: someone beat me to the PPE

 

[hillbilly1]

The one I looked at the other day, they pulled all of the wire out of the transformer apparently with a truck.(this is the second time in a year they have stripped this store) POCO was looking at another transformer in the same shopping center that had the same thing done, but they nearly pulled the live pad mount off of a bank. The engineer said a contractor had installed a 400 amp overhead service down the street, and someone stripped it the same night before they could even get it energized. Rewired one almost completely a couple of months ago, the theives spent several weeks on it. Nothing but shells of 27 roof top units, Everything #8 and above gone from panels. They started to cut out the service, but apparently stopped when they found out the 1600 amp 480 volt three phase service was still live!

 

[sii]

Sorry for the ignorance her....what are the terminals hanging down in the center that look like they are connected to a piece of 2x2 square tubing?

To contribute, for awhile I was hearing a lot of stories around Lincoln and Omaha about wire theft but haven't heard much lately. I guess I thought since the price of copper had fallen from what it was a few years ago that it wasn't as much of a problem? The best one I ever heard was a radio story, one of those 15 second, bottom of the hour news rundown type stories, that said "police have found a 200kV line cut at a substation, as well as a pair of gnarled bolt cutters, and are currently searching hospitakl burn units for the suspect."

 

[hillbilly1]

Sorry for the ignorance her....what are the terminals hanging down in the center that look like they are connected to a piece of 2x2 square tubing?"

I believe the square tubing is an insulator supporting the "B" and "C" bus bars. The terminals are for the connection of the service laterals.

 

[Chamuit]

I believe the square tubing is an insulator supporting the "B" and "C" bus bars. The terminals are for the connection of the service laterals.

10-4. This is/was a SquareD 2000A free standing section.

 

[PetrosA]

10-4. This is/was a SquareD 2000A free standing section.

It's also a strong argument in favor of AL conductors

 

[Minuteman]

big cajones for sure. it's amazing what people are capable of when you don't let things like ethics or morals bother you.

It's spelled: cojones

 

[Electron_Sam78]

It's spelled: cojones

lol I thought he was talking about big men from Louisiana :grin:

 

[Chamuit]

It's also a strong argument in favor of AL conductors

Some of the feeders were aluminum. 850' x 500mcm x 8 conductors on the longest one.