It’s a major and serious problem all across North American. Thieves are stealing wires from municipal lampposts, from power lines, telephone wires, transformers, substations, cable tv wires…anything that has the valuable metal.
The Canadian Electricity Association says copper theft costs the electricity sector about $40 million annually.
A related issue is the theft of copper and bronze plaques from memorials, cenotaphs, and cemeteries.
The wire theft is not only potentially dangerous by leaving people without power or street lighting, but also extremely costly, to the amount of several million dollars annually in many communities.
In the first few months of 2013, officials in Gatineau Quebec estimated thieves stole about 30 kilometres of wire from sports fields and industrial parks.
In 2011, Telus (cable tv) spent more than $18 million replacing cable just in the west coast province of British Columbia alone, while BC Hydro spent $4 million in repairs.
The thieves steal the wires, then burn off the plastic insulation, and sell the metal to somewhat less than scrupulous scrap metal yards. In some cases, they have been known to cut or knock down power and light poles to get access to the wires.
On average the wire stolen between two power poles might net thieves about $200, but in labour and material could easily cost a municipality over $200,000 to replace.
Earlier this year the British Columbia city of Surrey decided it was fed up with spending millions of dollars annually to replace stolen wire and repair damage.
It was the first city in North America to begin a multi-million dollar programme to replace the copper wire in it’s street lights with a copper-aluminium alloy that is worth about a tenth the value of copper. As well, the new insulation will be virtually impossible to burn off without destroying the metal wire.
Ontario’s Hydro One, the power generating and delivery provider in Canada’s most populous province, has also just announced their plan to curb theft. They say they lose about $2 million worth of wire annually
In a statement this week, Hydro One, said that as new maintenance and upgrades are performed on its equipment, the copper lines will be replaced with a copper-steel alloy. They will also add signs indicating that the new wire has virtually no scrap metal value.
“By making changes to the way we operate we can deter metal theft,” said Ron Gentle, Chief Security Officer, Hydro One. “We want to ensure Ontarians can continue to safely rely on electricity to power their homes, businesses and communities every day.”
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