Theft of construction metals

[RogueMale]

Three more cases: http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/news/Ma ... ticle.html,

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8828 ... es_jailed/

and http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... ogle.co.uk.

They don't always get away: death, imprisonment, severe burns.

[kenneal - lagger]

A MAN was severely burned after he was electrocuted with 11,000 volts in a major blast.

The victim suffered serious burns to his arms and face and was rushed to hospital after coming into contact with the extremely high-powered generator.

The terrifying incident at the former AMP electronics building in the Dubbs Road industrial estate, Port Glasgow, left, happened at 2am this morning.

The 46-year-old was lucky to be alive as the 11,000-volt generator contains enough power to run almost 50 homes.

What an awful bit of journalism. Eric Baxter obviously doesn't know a thing about electricity and couldn't be bothered to find out before he wrote a load of tosh. It was a sub station and they contain transformers, as was quoted further down the article.

The Barnet etc. Times article had more puns in it than a Powerswitch thread.

[adam2]

Yet again the concerns seem to be for the welfare of thieves and the potential hazards to other thieves.
how about "he got what he deserved, let this be a warning to others considering such thefts"

And BTW virtually all railways equiped with overhead electrification use 25,000 volts, not 600 ! and virtually all street lights use the standard 230/240 volt mains, I have never seen a 110 volt one except perhaps for temporary lighting on a building site.

More thefts here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13342162

[ujoni08]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gl ... e-13346923

'Three people have been arrested on suspicion of stealing lead from a warehouse in Thrupp, near Stroud.

Gloucestershire Police were called to a report of people taking lead from the roof and putting it in a vehicle shortly before 0300 BST.

A 33-year-old man, 39-year-old man and 36-year-old woman were arrested and are in police custody'.

Jon

[kenneal - lagger]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gl ... e-13346923

'Three people have been arrested on suspicion of stealing lead from a warehouse in Thrupp, near Stroud.

Gloucestershire Police were called to a report of people taking lead from the roof and putting it in a vehicle shortly before 0300 BST.

A 33-year-old man, 39-year-old man and 36-year-old woman were arrested and are in police custody'.

Jon

"We're just the night shift, guvnor!" they were rumoured to have said.

[emordnilap]

Many moons ago, in a shop I was partner in, I was alerted to a burglary there. I was first on the scene and caught one of the culprits trying to hide under a table.

He said to me, "It's a fair cop".

I kid you not. It was a struggle to keep a straight face. I'd never come across that outside a Dandy.

Then an officer came into the room and said to him, "Oh no, what are you doing here?" They apparently knew each other quite well. Funny old world.

[biffvernon]

A few days ago in my end of Lincolnshire one and a half kilometres of overhead power cable, probably an 11kv line, was stolen during the night with loose ends hanging across a road.

[adam2]

A few days ago in my end of Lincolnshire one and a half kilometres of overhead power cable, probably an 11kv line, was stolen during the night with loose ends hanging across a road.

Yes it was probably at least 11KV, 240/415 volt lines are not often that long.
The line was probably live when the thieves attacked it, I doubt that the ends remaining would still be live, though it would be exceedingly foolish to touch them, or even to approach closely.

It would be public spirited to report such instances promptly to the police, in order that they may block the area off until made safe.
I dont care much about the safety of the thieves, but it would be awfull if an innocent passer by was killed, by for instance live ends left in reach.

[biffvernon]

Indeed. It happened at about 2am. It's hard to imagine how someone could even handle that quantity of cable - must have been people with the right sort of gear.
The line was repaired by 4pm, heaven knows at what cost.

[clv101]

Indeed. It happened at about 2am. It's hard to imagine how someone could even handle that quantity of cable - must have been people with the right sort of gear.
The line was repaired by 4pm, heaven knows at what cost.

I wonder how far off we are from (a) such events becoming relativity common and/or (b) them not getting fixed within 24hrs, if ever. You could imagine a threshold being reached, beyond which certain rural areas basically lose reliable grid supply. Kinda like how a couple billion people live today already.

[Totally_Baffled]

Now there is an idea for post peak employment - burying electricity cable so no bugger can nick it!

Should take a few decades with blokes with shovels

[adam2]

Now there is an idea for post peak employment - burying electricity cable so no bugger can nick it!

Should take a few decades with blokes with shovels

The more determined thieves can and do, steal buried cables, see a few posts back. And of course those doing the burying would probably be recruited from the margins of society and therefore include some actual thieves.

The burying of cables is frequently proposed, but is by no means a simple affair.
Cables for burial are far more costly and contain a lot more embodied energy. Fault finding can be protracted, whereas faults on overhead lines can normally be found by walking the route, or by air.
Burying miles of cable under a rural road means closing the road for weeks and re-surfacing it afterwards. Burying it elswhere means protracted talks with numerous different landowners, digging up hedgerows, disturbing wildlife, and disrupting farming would be additional concerns. Cables buried under fields need to be very deeply buried lest they suffer damage from deep ploughing, subsoil drainage machines, or tree roots.
It is likely that roads would have to be built to accomadate the digging and re-instatement.
Repeat when it goes bang, as it surely will, probably just before harvest or during the worst freeze-up for years.

Rural electricity supply is in effect a charity, or at best a social service, not a business.
I read somwhere that if the charges for rural electricity supply reflected the costs of supply, that the standing charge would have to be several thousand pounds a year, and the charge per unit about double that paid at present.
In many cases, the network operator has to provide equipment costing perhaps £100,000 in order to supply a handfull of premises that spend in total a few thousand pounds on power.
Totally uneconomic, they would do it if required to by law.
Laws can be changed, standby for rural DE-electrification.

[kenneal - lagger]

I was quoted £17,750 for a 60A connection about 30 years ago for an 800m underground cable. The reason that I didn't accept the quote, and have been off grid ever since, was that not only was I asked to pay for the equipment installed but they wanted me to pay a rental for it as well.

They don't lose money on new connections.

[DominicJ]

I'm with Ken here, I thought you had to pay your own initial connection costs?

Although obviously, the ongoing costs are likely to be a loss to the provider.

[adam2]

I'm with Ken here, I thought you had to pay your own initial connection costs?

Although obviously, the ongoing costs are likely to be a loss to the provider.

I believe that for new connections, the customer does have to pay, if not the full cost, at least a significant contribution.
My concerns are more with existing connections in lightly populated rural areas. Some very expensive infrastructure, with significant maintenance costs and losses has to be provided for some customers.

In many cases equipment installed in the 1960s is now reaching the end of its life. Storm damage and theft are increasing problems.
Replacing some miles of overhead line that has been stolen or storm wrecked costs many thousands of pounds, sometimes for a handful of customers. The cost of such renewals would NEVER be recouped from the energy bills. In many cases, the income from the customer does not even cover anuall maintenance checks, let alone any major renewals.

Rural electrification was heavily subsidised in the 1960s as it was considered desirable on social grounds, and provided much needed employment.
Pre North sea OIL, it was also considered preferable to burn British coal in power stations, rather than to import oil for generators and oil lamps.