Industry studies indicate a rising tide of substation copper theft at utility substations. There are an estimated 50,000 incidents each year resulting in over $20 million in stolen copper – and with the current price of copper, the industry continues to experience an increasing trend in security breaches, safety violations leading to burglar injuries, and significant disruption of power service.
“Actually, the most significant costs are the man hours and equipment replacement costs estimated to be over $60 million at U.S. utilities,” said Larry Anderson, principal of the utility marketing arm of Tattletale Portable Alarm Systems - tattletale-utility.com. “What we’ve done is configure our outdoor commercial wireless alarm system specifically for electric utilities to protect their outdoor physical assets.”
“Currently, our alarm systems are protecting hundreds of substations around in the U.S.,” continues Anderson. “The Tattletale System avoids wiring restrictions, alarm service contracts, and complex operations. Deployment can be completed in 10-30 minutes making it an easy-to-adapt solution.”
The system includes a base control unit typically installed in the control house and linked to wireless motion sensors that are strategically placed within the substation structure. The base control unit links to the cellular towers when communicating an alarm condition to a 24/7 response U.S.-based monitoring center or sending email and cell phone text messages to utility’s personnel. Being 100% wireless, there are no wires to cut, no cell charges, and the system features the industry’s fastest response, and tamper proof, long-range sensors (up 2,000 ft).
Tattletale’s alarm systems have become the popular choice in the construction industry for protecting outdoor assets like building sites & materials, vehicles & construction equipment, parking lots, storage buildings, and fenced areas. As a new trend, electric utilities are adopting Tattletale’s alarm system to protect outdoor physical assets including substations, line equipment construction sites, inventory yards, and other high value assets.
