Detection of Underground Power Cable Theft: Strategies and Methods

There are many cases in South Africa where power failure is mainly caused by cable theft. Although the power utilities and local municipalities work together, relatively close with communities to promote awareness. But cable theft in majority of urban areas still persists currently. Therefore, this paper proposes a cable theft detection system based on natural frequency disturbances. However, all possible employed methodologies are assessed thouroughly. It is prominent that based on identification of frequency disturbances on an underground cable, it triggers the systems alarm and location of the disturbance is identified within a short period.