Anti theft solutions for surface mounted earth conductors or cables

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badshah

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United Arab Emirates
Hi,

We experience copper theft in our substations, usually the surface mounted copper conductor for earth or earth cable connected for bonding between equipment (RMU, Transformer & LV panel) were stolen (some instances even ground electrode were also stolen).

My Question: Is it possible to conceal this surface mounted ground conductors or cables within concrete i.e. the conductor run will be within the concrete not exposed? Instead of exposing the ground conductor, if they are concealed within concrete, will the conductor serve the purpose of grounding?.

Also i found there are some Conductive concrete available in the market, which protects the conductor from corrosion unlike normal concrete, also reduces impedance and enhances the performance, reliability and longevity of grounding systems.


Thanks & Regards
Badshah
 
badshah said:
Hi,

We experience copper theft in our substations, usually the surface mounted copper conductor for earth or earth cable connected for bonding between equipment (RMU, Transformer & LV panel) were stolen (some instances even ground electrode were also stolen).

My Question: Is it possible to conceal this surface mounted ground conductors or cables within concrete i.e. the conductor run will be within the concrete not exposed? Instead of exposing the ground conductor, if they are concealed within concrete, will the conductor serve the purpose of grounding?.

Also i found there are some Conductive concrete available in the market, which protects the conductor from corrosion unlike normal concrete, also reduces impedance and enhances the performance, reliability and longevity of grounding systems.


Thanks & Regards
Badshah
Click to expand...

Consider using Copperweld -- steel conductor with copper covering -- almost no scrap value.
 
in the US, utilities can pretty much make up their own rules for how their side of the system is installed. I don't know how it is in the UAE, or even what electrical code is followed there.

what part of the UAE are you in? I was supposed to go to Sharjah in a month or so, but my wife's kidney stones probably put an end to that.
 
badshah said:
My Question: Is it possible to conceal this surface mounted ground conductors or cables within concrete i.e. the conductor run will be within the concrete not exposed? Instead of exposing the ground conductor, if they are concealed within concrete, will the conductor serve the purpose of grounding?
Click to expand...


The following link provides a good reference for grounding, including the use of concrete encased electrodes (ufer) and substation grounding.

http://hendricksares.org/docs/misc/pgeg.pdf
 
PetrosA said:
That's crazy!
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I agree. But it happens.
We've been victims of audacious thefts more than once. Sometimes opportune and others, regrettably, must have had inside information.

A related tale. On site in Scotland in the hurry up and wait phase. I fell in with an old crony. He told me of a theft of cable from an unattended site. The rapscallions worked all night to rip out cable.
There's a delicious irony.
The scrap price for the stolen conductors was about a tenth of what they would have made working the same hours in a real job even at minimum wage.

Probably good candidates for the Darwin awards.
 
I have often wondered why the utilities do not just use a long metal steel rod instead of a down wire for grounding. Just cut a slot in the side of the pole and insert a 20 foot long 1/2" rod. Nothing worth stealing at ground level.
 
petersonra said:
I have often wondered why the utilities do not just use a long metal steel rod instead of a down wire for grounding. Just cut a slot in the side of the pole and insert a 20 foot long 1/2" rod. Nothing worth stealing at ground level.
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Not a bad idea. Just pull the whole thing when the pole needs replacing.
 
jtinge said:
The following link provides a good reference for grounding, including the use of concrete encased electrodes (ufer) and substation grounding.

http://hendricksares.org/docs/misc/pgeg.pdf
Click to expand...


Hi thanks for the link.. CEE or UFER grounding covers the electrode rod within the concrete.. but what about the surface mounted conductor or bonding conductor connecting the ground rod.. which is mounted on the wall and easily stolen.. My question is whether we can conceal or encase these bonding conductors within concrete using conductive concrete.

http://www.saeinc.com/ConducreteConductiveCement
 
badshah said:
Hi thanks for the link.. CEE or UFER grounding covers the electrode rod within the concrete.. but what about the surface mounted conductor or bonding conductor connecting the ground rod.. which is mounted on the wall and easily stolen.. My question is whether we can conceal or encase these bonding conductors within concrete using conductive concrete.

http://www.saeinc.com/ConducreteConductiveCement
Click to expand...

why would it need to be conductive concrete? if you are just trying to hide it, just slap some concrete over top of it and be done with it.

Having said that, I think in the NEC you are required to make the connections accessible. I don't think the GEC has to be accessible, just the terminations.

Is there some reason you cannot just put the GEC inside of a piece of conduit?
 
As Besoeker has said, it?s a major problem here in the UK.

On night shift I got a call to a plant where the supply had been lost. It was fed via a 2.5KV OH line. Checked the OCB at the source, it?s out on both EF & OC. I didn?t fancy a 2 mile cross country hike at 02:00 to check the line so closed the OCB. Call the remote plant ?nothing here?. ? mile of the OH line had gone walk about.
 
Tony S said:
As Besoeker has said, it?s a major problem here in the UK.

On night shift I got a call to a plant where the supply had been lost. It was fed via a 2.5KV OH line. Checked the OCB at the source, it?s out on both EF & OC. I didn?t fancy a 2 mile cross country hike at 02:00 to check the line so closed the OCB. Call the remote plant ?nothing here?. ? mile of the OH line had gone walk about.
Click to expand...

copper or AL?
 
A local theatre company bought a building but it was a few months before they were ready to move into it, whereupon they found that thieves had stolen all the copper from the pole out front to the service entrance. When the police interviewed a woman who worked the drive through window on a nearby property she told them she saw the whole thing go down in broad daylight. The thieves had a truck with a bucket lift and they were all wearing uniforms, so she just assumed it was the utility company.
 
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