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Western United Electric Contracts Cresatech CuTS® Copper Theft Detection

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Publicly owned energy distributor Western United Electric now offers new to market technology that detects substation copper theft as is happens. CuTS® from Cresatech, Inc. is proprietary sensing technology that detects changes in substation grounding infrastructure as the theft occurs.

October 29, 2014
Denver, Colorado

Western United Electric Supply Corporation (WUE) is a member-owned not-for-profit electric utility wholesale supplier. Their members and customers are rural electric cooperatives, municipal electric utilities, investor owned electric utilities and electric utility contractors located in a seven state Rocky Mountain region.

Cresatech specializes in technology and service solutions that address high cost, high impact operational issues within power transmission & distribution, mobile telecoms, transport and other critical service markets. Our innovative products monitor exposed service sites and infrastructure in a variety of complex operational environments, providing real time monitoring for service interruption and disruption due to removal of copper grounding and other power delivery infrastructure.

Prime targets for copper theft are rural substations that often have little security or safety measures installed. WUE customers are rural energy providers and likely to benefit from CuTS® technology. The new partnership compliments the extensive WUE Line Card.

Sales Inquiries and Technology
Western United Electric
www.wue.coop
303-598-7104
customerservice@wue.coop

Media and Interviews
Catherine Fulton
720-441-9936
cfulton@cresatech.com

The hazards of undetected copper theft on a substation.

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At Cresatech, our business is copper theft detection. This story from San Francisco last year illustrates the hazards of undetected copper theft on a substation.

It can be expensive to do, but the cost of doing nothing is worse than the cost of doing this.

Investigators noted “experienced thieves” (look for a discussion on the types of copper thieves in a later article) only stole $100 worth of copper.

It would be considered pretty-theft and relatively simple to repair. In this case, however, the actual copper theft wasn’t the major problem. What happened when the theft went undetected could have been tragic. After some U.C. Berkley buildings lost power and explosion erupted. Onlookers could see flames two stories high. Fortunately, only minor injuries were reported.

It is noted that energy companies are frustrated with the ongoing copper theft, and until recently there has been little strategy and no investment to solve the problem. When the founders of Cresatech CuTS® began beta testing, the goal was to develop technology that would meet many ideals. CuTS® suite has many talking points- minimal false positives, low cost, easily deployed- but the most important may be real time alerting.

As substation copper theft struggles in the marketplace are ongoing, demand for CuTS® products are growing to protect assets but more often now, as a security investment and capital improvement.

Case Study
San Francisco, CA
Obtober 2013

CBS News

Doble Training Conference Gave Utility Pro’s First Look at CuTS Copper Theft Technology

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Copper theft is still a mounting problem for utility companies. During Doble Conference Expo hours, we met with substations managers and technicians who shared some of their own experiences with copper theft.

From petty thieves cutting grounds for a $250 trade-in profit, to organized crime stripping an entire substation for a loss of $250,000 in copper alone. For the utility provider, such losses are devastating. With copper theft reports coming to us weekly from the U.S, Canada and U.K., the interest and demand for Cresatech CuTS technology continues to swell.

One important take-away from the conference was the response to our cost outlook. With some utility substation managers citing failed theft prevention costs already into +$100,000, our  CuTS technology rollout cost of between $3,000-$20,000 was a real eye opener. CuTs technology is a low cost solution to copper theft.