Replacement of Stolen Earthing Copper Tape.

One night swap 'em out for a phase. End of problem.

Earthing can be done in GI also.Since GI is cost effective pilferage will not take place in GI.Only thing is cross section of GI will be different for GI and it should carry the fault current.

Hi There Enq.alasad, Im no expert on this matter but I know that in QLD in the land of OZ copper coated steel rods are commonly used as earthing rods, usually 1800mm long.

I would guess that different soil types would detirmine the type of earthing rod?

coben

The problem with the scenario of getting the tape stolen and replacing it with something else is the symptom, not the solution. The solution is to make the area where the tape is unaccessable. Anything short of that, you are kidding yourself.

I guess it depends on your location, but here, copper tape is not held in high regard and/or skirts code.

Copper coated steel rods are permitted for drivng earth electrodes into the ground subject to accaetabe resistance values - in the UK copper coated steel is not permitted as an earthing earthing conductor although it is permitted as a bonding conductor.

Ultimately it depends on the acceptable standards of you own individual country.

I like the idea of a deterrent energizing the door would be fun .Maybe an electric fence voltage .

Electrical substations are not my area of expertise so might I suggest a different tact?

Install a miniature, covert video camera, digital recorder (supercircuits.com) and catch the thieves.

Im talking about 2000 substations out of 10000 substations were stollen.. I have thought about the fence or the camera but we are talking here about huge quantity. Whenever we catch agroup of thievs we find another group of thievs...and so on.

We have a similar problem in South Africa. Anything copper gets stolen. We use composite bonding conductors, which consists of copper strands surrounded/interwoven by steel strands. It is currently too much hassle to separate the two, as scrap dealers only take pure copper. We are also looking at remote monitoring, but the remote locations and distance from security forces remains a problem - these guys are quick.

In the HV yard of substations. we use flat steel bar of about 5 times the size of the copper rods previously used. Our bosses are not too happy, but I reckon to at least have some protection guaranteed than perfect protection guaranteed to be stolen.

And like Eng.alasad, there are an infinite supply of desperate people to take over from the guys that are caught. We have replaced all our copper overhead cables (electrified railways) in my area with ACSR (Aluminium COnductor - Steel Re-inforced), as these pose the same challenge to the thieves. Now they are stealing the 3kV DC feeder cables....... We are now encasing it in concrete. That gets chopped up too, so now we are reinforcing the concrete. We'll see what's next.

I was under the impression that the copper stealing was prevailing only in our place, it looks from the response, this is common internationally.

I build substations for one of the major US electrical utilities. We have a major problem with copper theft. Have tried many methods to minimize thefts.

1. Copperweld conductors- from the grounding/earthing point of the structure to the copper grid underground.

2. Attemts at disguising or hiding the copper from sight. i.e. painting, shrouding, and covering with concrete covers.

We have yet to be able to stop the intrusions. The only ones we catch are the ones that mistakenly cut the neutrals from the transformers. They get stopped rather quickly and permanently.

Illigetimi non carborundum

Try embeding the tape in a porous cinder concrete.

It will be effective and hard to remove.

Suggested manufacturer Copperhead wire www.copperheadwire.com represented by UPSCO Moravia NY Dan Pajak 315/497-1070.