Wire theft, particularly involving copper from electrical infrastructure, is a costly and dangerous issue worldwide. This illegal activity not only leads to power outages and economic losses but also poses severe electrocution risks.
Utility companies suffer billions in annual losses due to cable theft, which impacts essential services and raises consumer costs. Despite various security measures, tracking stolen metals and apprehending thieves remains challenging. To address this issue, Tondo Smart Ltd. developed an AI-powered wire theft detection system, now deployed across Israel’s national transport infrastructure.
Copper wire theft is driven by the high resale value of the metal, leading to frequent and costly thefts from electrical infrastructures. The consequences are severe, including power outages, service disruptions, and significant financial losses. For utility companies and infrastructure operators, traditional security measures often fall short in preventing or quickly detecting theft, making it a complex issue that requires innovative solutions.
Unfortunately, it is difficult for lighting operations teams to know the difference between a theft incident versus a fixture failure or a wiring fault.
The cost of repairing a single wire theft incident can range from $2,000 – $5,000 per pole, with a single theft event often involving multiple poles, and cities reporting repeated thefts at the same sites. The frequency of wire theft incidents in urban areas have been reported as high as 5% of all poles in a city per year.
Solutions to-date have included replacing pole foundations with tamper-resistant plates, using tamper-proof screws, or replacing wiring infrastructure with copper-clad steel or aluminum wiring. Some cities have begun replacing light poles that are at end-of-life with access plates placed higher on the pole. However, thieves have either found work-arounds for these solutions, or the implementation costs to cover all of the infrastructure become impractical. Replacing copper wire with copper-clad steel wire has found that thieves will steal the wire regardless, as the wire does not appear noticeably different.
“A report has been received regarding the theft of electrical infrastructure at a railway station in the southern part of the country. Two trenches were discovered from which communication cables buried in the ground were removed, totaling approximately 300 meters. This caused significant damage and has disrupted the signaling and traffic management systems of the railway in the southern region.”
Israel Railways Spokesperson
Tondo Edge IQ Smart Lighting Customers: Tondo’s Cabinet IQ is installed inside a lighting control cabinet serving as the utility service point for streetlights, and Tondo’s Edge IQ lighting controls are installed on each fixture. In and of themselves, these solutions provide for a 50%+ decrease in streetlight operating costs for cities and utilities. Tondo’s Wire Theft IQ AI algorithm is activated on Cloud IQ, providing real-time alerts to lighting operations teams when a wire theft is in-progress.
Customers without Edge IQ Smart Lighting controls: Tondo’s new Wire Theft IQ Pro device is installed at the end of each circuit served by a lighting control cabinet, along with Tondo’s Cabinet IQ installed in each cabinet. Tondo’s Wire Theft IQ Pro AI algorithm is activated, providing 100% accurate wire theft detection for all devices on the circuit.
Proactive Alerts and Deterrence: Upon detecting a potential theft, the system sends instant alerts to lighting operations teams, and enables them to quickly alert law enforcement to a theft-in-progress to increase deterrence. Labeling poles alerting thieves to the presence of anti-theft protection provides additional deterrence. Tondo expects a minimum deterrent effect of 40% for streetlight wire theft incidents, providing cost recovery in as little as two years.
A 2021 study of the Dallas police department showed that a 10% change in police presence has a 3% effect on deterrence. Where city operations teams and law enforcement are able to create a rapid-response protocol to respond to thefts-in-progress. With a consistent application of rapid-response to wire theft incidents, Tondo’s wire theft detection capabilities offer a new and inexpensive solution when compared to the high cost of replacing all of the wiring with low-copper wire ($200+ per pole), replacing foundation plates, or replacing entire poles.
The combined cost of Tondo’s smart lighting controls and energy analytics solution with wire theft detection capability can cost as little as $11 USD per pole with an annual operating benefits ranging from $8 – $14 per pole.
Comprehensive Implementation: Deployed across Netivei Israel, Tondo’s AI-based electricity theft solution manages 96,000 streetlights and 1,650 cabinet controllers along 5,000 miles of roadway.
Significant Savings: The implementation of Tondo’s Cloud IQ and AI-powered electricity theft detection system has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past year by preventing electricity theft, notwithstanding the 50%+ reduction in energy, maintenance, and operational expenses from Smart Lighting control. With the addition of wire theft detection, cities can implement a complete Smart Lighting, energy analytics, and theft detection system for their streetlighting assets with a cost recovery of less than two years.
Immediate Response: Cloud IQ’s real-time alerts allow lighting operations teams to work with local law enforcement to respond quickly to theft incidents, deterring future theft events and minimizing damage and service disruptions.
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