CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - It was a theft that could have had deadly consequences.
Maritime Electric spokeswoman Kim Griffin said an employee working at a substation in Dingwells Mills on Saturday noticed significant damage after someone stole copper wiring.
Griffin said it was virtually impossible for repair crews to get into the site safely at first, and the technician who noticed the damage was lucky he wasn’t hurt.
“Our employee could have been seriously harmed or electrocuted with the work that he was doing, but luckily he was able to quickly realize that something was wrong.”
Maritime Electric crews weren’t the only ones the theft affected on the weekend.
Griffin said the utility had to take the substation offline Saturday to evaluate the damage, which left about 6,000 customers in eastern P.E.I. without power for several hours as part of an emergency outage.
The employee who noticed the damage was shaken up by the incident, and Maritime Electric is thankful he wasn’t hurt, Griffin said.
“It was a pretty concerning time for us.”
Griffin said the obvious concern with copper thefts is the damage and power outages they cause, but she added that someone could have been seriously harmed, including the thief.
“It’s alarming to us, the danger in our substations, that someone would go in and try to steal copper,” she said.
“It is terrifying to us to think that one of our employees or contractors could have been hurt.”
Griffin said they don’t know when the copper was stolen, but workers who were at the substation the day before the employee didn’t notice any damage.
Although the outage lasted only a few hours to get some repairs done, Griffin said more work is needed and she didn’t know what the final cost of the damage will be.
The theft on the weekend wasn’t the first at one of Maritime Electric’s substations this year.
In April, someone stole copper wiring from a substation in Lorne Valley causing a power outage to about 12,000 customers.
Griffin said there are cameras at substations, and copper is marked and can be identified.
While she said there is a cost to Maritime Electric and an inconvenience to customers, Griffin also wanted to stress the safety component to anyone trying to steal copper.
“There could have been a loss of life, and for us that is such a huge concern.”
