£2 cable theft causes £100k damage? (how?)

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On the news tonight there was mention of some thieves stealing about £2 worth of cable from a local 11kv substation that caused a potential £100k of damage. A surge was mentioned.

Does anyone know more about it?
What will the removal of a short length of wire have done to cause this?
 
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Not seen the report, but removing the neutral link on the LV side will cause extensive damage, as the voltage on single phase circuits will be all over the place. Those that get the much higher voltage will have all of their equipment destroyed.
 
I once saw an insurance claim where a [very] large property single home 3 floors, all bells and buzzers, chocked full of electronics including a large "home cinema" where there was a "SURGE"
The owner called an electrician who tested the incoming 3 phase [one phase per floor, Yes it was a very large property] the electrician confirmed that each phase was running at 415 Volts but the amperage was stable.
Result in this property was all TVs were totally fried, the integrated combined games systems fried, the heating system [underfloor wet system] fried as were the cooker, mickywave, and all other systems simply fried? as was the entire integrated computer system.
At that point I left, made a report and left it to specialists, as i recall the initial cost to repair one property was about £15k??
 
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I went to a Holiday inn once where they had a business meeting and when a few clients plugged in there laptops there chargers burnt out, that was due to loss of Neutral on a 3 phase supply, there was 400 volt between the L and N of the sockets.

full
 
I could not find a link.
The tv presenter held a bit of g/y (earth) wire saying it was "like this" but I guess thats just showing a bit of wire that was in the eleccy guys van.
 
Another serious situation can arise when the star point ( the Neutral ) of the substation transformer is disconnected from the network distribution cable but remains connected to the sub-station's very low impedance Ground rods. Current from the network that would have been carried to the sub-station by the Neutral conductor will try to return to the sub-station via the ground. If metallic water mains to houses are bonded to the PME MET ( which is connected to the incoming Neutral ) and that metallic water main network has a very low impedance to Ground then the bonding wires in those houses are carrying the Neutral currrent. Some metallic mains are bonded to the star point as part of the sub-station's Ground rod system.

https://www.fire-magazine.com/castleford-explosion-injures-firefighters-footage-released

A lost Neutral ( metal theft at substation ) caused this damage,

upload_2019-5-4_10-48-56-png.163725


The source of the fire is the Main Earth Terminal
( source Daily Mail article by By James Tozer UPDATED:06:49, 4 May 2010 ) available HERE with many terchnically in-accurate comments

Read more: https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/asking-dno-re-supply-characteristics.522357/#ixzz5qbrk3hRP
 
The owner called an electrician who tested the incoming 3 phase [one phase per floor, Yes it was a very large property] the electrician confirmed that each phase was running at 415 Volts but the amperage was stable.

This doesn't make sense. Stable amperage? Each phase was running at 415V? With respect to what?
 
This doesn't make sense. Stable amperage? Each phase was running at 415V? With respect to what?
I guess 415v to each other, but floating with respect to neutral. Hence the damage.
Stable amperage could just mean everything has exploded that's going to do whatever is left is drawing a consistent current
 
Did you have a link ?
He did, but it was the N-E link and the vandals stole it :ROFLMAO:
Perhaps it's about time we had a wiki page or pinned thread with a "this is what happens when a valdal steals the N-E link in a substation" description. And these are only the cases people on here get to notice - there's a lot more of it than we get to hear about :evil:
The DNOs are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as my contact put it - if they milk the publicity of a death or serious injury then it puts out a bad image, so they don't do it; but they'd really like to publicise such cases as a deterrent.
Mind you, I suspect that the sort of people who do this wouldn't believe the warnings anyway - or would just believe that they are too clever for it to be them next. Also, I;ve heard stories that some theives are actually quite clever - such as taking along glass to stand on while cutting through power cables alongside railway lines :eek: I was as a talk a while ago about something railway related, and they'd taken to burying the cable ducts a whole meter down under the middle of the tracks as the only way to stop cable thefts :rolleyes:
 

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