Thieves targeting electricity network expose public to grave danger

Thieves have targeted the country’s electricity network on 135 occasions over the last five years, causing millions of euro in damage and exposing the public to severe danger.

The figures, which were obtained under a freedom of information request to ESB Networks, show that criminals are regularly risking electrocution to steal valuable metal from overhead wires and substations across the country.

They are leaving “death traps behind them”, by breaking locks and removing vital safety equipment, said senior ESB official Carmel O’Connor. She said there had been three “very, very serious injuries” stemming from thefts from substations in the past three years.

“The fear is always that a curious child will get in through a gap in a substation afterwards or come in contact with an overhead line that’s been left.”

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The danger is compounded by the fact that thefts in rural areas are sometimes not noticed by ESB staff for several weeks.

Metals such as copper and aluminium have significantly increased in value in recent years, prompting travelling criminal gangs to target the infrastructure run by ESB networks, which maintains the country’s electricity network.

“You can see in the information gathered by the gardaí that any increase in the price of copper coincides with an increase in thefts,” Ms O’Connor said.

Power loss

Since 2016, the semi-State company has spent many millions in repair work following thefts. This includes some €10.5 million following an explosion at a live substation in Inchicore in Dublin caused by a theft. The incident resulted in 120,000 customers losing power.

According to the data, thefts doubled in 2019, when there were 45 separate incidents, before reducing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last year there were 12 theft incidents, including two that cost more than €20,000 each to repair. These occurred in Tipperary and Offaly over a three-day period.

The majority of incidents are concentrated in six counties: Cork, Galway, Dublin, Tipperary, Waterford and Kildare.

A typical approach is for thieves to throw metal on the wires to short them, before climbing up and stealing the materials. “They have many tricks,” Ms O’Connor said. “I don’t know how more people haven’t been killed climbing up poles.”

The ESB believes increased Garda checkpoints and patrols caused a drop-off in thefts during the pandemic, but officials fear they will increase again as the country reopens. “It seems to go in peaks and troughs,” Ms O’Connor said.

Other utility suppliers such as Eir are also being affected. Another favourite target of thieves is new housing estates, Ms O’Connor said.

In 16 incidents since 2016, criminals have stolen copper from overhead electricity cables. In seven such incidents the cables were live at the time, and in five, they were left in a unsafe state afterwards, including with live wires hanging down.

‘Extreme danger’

Thousands of houses have suffered power loss due to thefts over the past five years. During one incident in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, in April 2020, theft from an live overhead line left up to 500 homes without power for over six hours.

More than 35 hours of electricity supply was lost due to the damage caused by thefts.

ESB Networks also recorded 13 “major” incidents as a result of thefts. Such incidents resulted in serious concerns relating to system safety, environmental issues or personal injuries.

Following one incident in south Dublin in 2016, security staff and gardaí were exposed to “extreme danger” after entering a substation where live 10 kilovolt cables had been left on the ground by thieves. The same incident resulted in 1,000 litres of oil being spilled into the environment.

In March 2018, thieves stole 2km of overheard wire running across farmland in Co Kildare, during a spate of thefts in the midlands.

In another incident in rural Kildare in 2015, some seven kilometres of live overhead cable was stolen.