Electricity and Control April 2021

SAFETY OF PLANT, EQUIPMENT + PEOPLE

Combatting cable theft with remote monitoring

Cable theft has plagued South African industry for decades and has proved to be a complex issue that requires a multi-pronged approach to solve it. Here Ian Loudon, International Sales and Marketing Manager at Omniflex, explains how advances in remote monitoring technologies are giving businesses a fighting chance.

I t’s Wednesday night in Amanzimtoti on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, and two members of the private security firmhiredby Telkom, thecountry’smajor telecomsprovider, head out to investigate an alarm that has been triggered. On arrival at the site, they discover that one of the cables in the cabinet is cut and telephone handsets are strewn on the grass. Then, one of the security officers receives a phone call alerting them to an alarm that’s been triggered down the road. In the darkness they use torches to explore the bushes off the main road and, a few minutes into the search, one of the security guards finds the problem – 500 metres of copper wire has been ripped out of the telecoms cables. Had the thieves managed to get away with the cable, they would have melted it down to remove the plastic insu- lation and sold it to a scrapyard for around R900 (or about $50 US dollars, at the time). For the company that has been struck by this theft, it will cost ten times that to replace the cable and repair the critical infrastructure. This story dates back to October 2001, when it was broad- cast in a special assignment by SABC TV. It highlights just how prevalent and damaging cable theft is – and underscores how, two decades on, the theft continues seemingly unabat- ed. The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates that cable theft costs the economy between R5 and 7 billion a year. It mostly involves the theft of copper cable from mines, pipelines, railways, telecoms and electrical utilities.

For most companies it means investing in physical security, fences and barriers, and visible patrols and guards. Many sites combine this with CCTV and some offer financial in- centives for information about cable theft. However, for many sites these measures are prohibitive. In the mining sector, for example, sites can span large ge- ographic areas over dozens of square kilometres or more, and the cost of installing fencing and employing patrols and CCTV operators can quickly mount up. A fact that the criminals know well. Cable alarms The use of alarms that detect a system power failure has become a popular option in recent years. These are electri- cal devices that alert site managers when the power goes out – a potential sign that the cable has been cut. However, the problem with such systems is that they fail to distinguish between a genuine power outage and one caused by ca- bles or wires being cut by criminals. Because South Africa uses load shedding to manage electricity supply and demand when supply is constrained – and the schedules for these planned outages are made public – it seems that some thieves make use of the infor- mation and time their robberies down to the minute. When the power goes out, they strike, stealing the cable and mak- ing their getaway before the power is restored. The typical alarms used in these situations register the power cut as a false-positive, which means the site manager does not know about the theft until much later.

Security measures What measures can companies use to tackle the problem?

Remote monitoring of cable circuits fitted with alarm systems set to trigger when the cable has been cut gives businesses another level of defence to combat theft.

For many companies the first line of defence means investing in physical fences and barriers, and visible patrols and guards.

The continuing problem of cable theft mostly involves theft of copper cable from mines, pipelines, railways, telecoms and electrical utilities.

24 Electricity + Control APRIL 2021