Energex Copper Theft Cuts Power to 13,000 Customers

An attempt to steal copper from a south-east Queensland substation caused a fire and left about 13,000 customers without power overnight. State-owned Energex said the fire at its Browns Plains substation cut power to suburbs including Boronia Heights, Hillcrest and Regents Park from 2:45am. The outage affected homes and businesses in the area, a residential and commercial hub south of Brisbane.

Energex field delivery general manager Kev Lavender said someone broke into a cable pit outside the substation and tried to cut through an 11,000-volt cable. "We suspect that anyone who's been involved in cutting through a live 11,000-volt cable could have serious injuries, and it could've resulted in a fatality," he said. By 10:15am, power had been restored to nearly half the affected customers, leaving about 6,500 still without power.

The incident is the latest in a surge of copper theft attempts across Queensland. Energex recorded nearly 1,000 cable theft attempts in the past 12 months, Lavender said. The utility has been replacing copper cables with aluminum, and the cable cut overnight was aluminum, he said. Lavender noted an increase in thefts not only on the network but also in new housing estates and developments. The thieves risked their lives for material of relatively low value, he said.