[Marty Fox]

Hi Stephen

Copper thefts are an ongoing issue for us, although it is much more sporadic now than a couple of years ago. All in rural areas, and almost all transformer earths. They are essentially chopping the earth from the pole at knee and head height, only taking about 1.5m at a time. Hardly worth the effort, although reduces their exposure as they are only there for about a minute.

In late 2019 we had over 100 sites affected in a two month period, and at that time we engaged with the Police areas around us, the Scrap Metal Dealers Association, and neighbouring networks (Powerco was getting hit hard, actually caught some of the offenders I believe).

We increased patrols of areas hit multiple times, trialled a couple of solar power CCTV cameras (good idea, just didn’t get any results), did door to door looking for properties with CCTV and reviewed footage (identified vehicles of interest but not able to record plates or people), lots of mail box drops, and use of local media and social media.

Our public safety campaign still covers interference with assets, and increasing public awareness is important but hasn’t landed results yet.

Things slowed down during the lockdown periods as well, more people at home and more aware of unusual activity. Commodity prices are up again, so we are all likely to get more. We also recently had a length of copper cored 33kV cable taken from where it was stored in a fully fenced substation yard.

Our new earthing standard means we are using galv pipe to protect the earths, these have worked well in high risk areas. I understand we’ve also looked at alternatives to copper.

Regards

Marty