The Karachi Electric Supply Company security thwarted an attempt to steal high tension copper wire from the 132kV Pipri-KEPZ transmission circuit on Saturday afternoon. The power utility's security personnel reached the scene while the thieves were engaged in stealing a span of the copper conductor from the circuit.
The thieves had disconnected the circuit causing extra high tension tripping while a transmission team of the KESC was around for some work and they were noticed. The organised stealing of EHT conductor wire has become very frequent lately as the copper black market is doing a roaring business for the past several years. The KESC police has already raided a few junk dealers and recovered stolen copper wire. At least two truckloads of stolen copper wire have also been captured in the recent months.
During the past one month, there have been several attempts to steal copper wire off transmission circuits in Pipri, Gharo and Dhabeji areas, because of which the circuits tripped several times and it damaged a 250 MVA auto transformer worth Rs 250 million. As precaution, the KESC had to develop direct line to ground conditions which resulted in potential risk to the entire EHT network thus decreasing the average life span of equipment like transformers, cables and even the power generation machines at power plants.-PR