Safety, security and theft issues

This paper discusses copper theft deterrent measures both within substations and on publicly accessible structures. A recently developed alternative for sub-transmission timber pole earthing is proving to be an effective method in reducing the incidents of theft of down earth conductors. This theft deterrent method utilizes copper bonded steel rods or copper sheathed steel rods in the down conductor, the same steel rod material used for driven earth electrodes. These copper bonded steel rods are constructed from hardened steel to withstand the forces from being driven directly into virgin soils without burring the rod tips or bending the rod. Being hardened steel they have little or no scrap value and can’t be cut using the common hand tools that thieves use such as pliers, cable cutters or even axes.