St. Albert plagued by thieves stealing EV charger cables

Thieves have stolen the cables from another dozen electric vehicle charging stations in St. Albert, costing the city thousands in repairs.

The St. Albert RCMP received reports Aug. 15 that the cables from the six EV charging stations at St. Albert Place and the six at Fountain Park Recreation Centre had been stolen.

St. Albert RCMP Cpl. Morgan Kyle said the cables had been cut and stolen, apparently overnight, with the charging handles also taken in some cases. She asked anyone who witnessed the thefts or who had video of the chargers around Aug. 15 to contact the RCMP.

The thefts mean that just six of the 26 EV charging stations run by the City of St. Albert were operational as of Aug. 20. The cables from the eight stations at Servus Place were stolen in early June and have yet to be replaced.

Witnesses reached by the Gazette last week said the 12 privately owned EV charge points in St. Albert listed on Plugshare.com were all intact as of Aug. 20.

In an email, City of St. Albert municipal energy specialist Gage Tweedy said the city was disappointed by the vandalism of these chargers, and was in talks with ATCO on ways to protect current and future EV infrastructure. Repairs to the St. Albert Place stations were estimated to cost $2,795.

Frustrating problem

Electric Vehicle Association of Alberta board member Andrew Batiuk said the St. Albert thefts were similar to ones occurring across North America, much to the frustration of EV advocates.

“It seems like every couple of weeks there are new (thefts) spotted,” he said.

In an email, Alberta RCMP Cpl. Troy Savinkoff said EV charge cable thefts appeared to part of a rising trend in thefts of precious metals such as copper wire, with the RCMP making numerous arrests related to copper wire theft since May 2024.

“Copper wire theft not only accounts for many millions of lost revenue for oil and gas, utilities, and municipalities, it also presents risks to the public, as exposed high-voltage wiring can shock or electrocute people, livestock, or wildlife, and start fires,” Savinkoff said.

In a statement issued July 26, 2024, Flo (the company that runs most of St. Albert’s EV chargers and many others in North America) said that about 23 per cent of the repairs to its Level Two chargers in the last quarter of 2023 were related to cable damage, up from 21 per cent in the first three quarters of that year. Many of those repairs were related to misuse rather than vandalism or theft. The company noted that the amount of copper in an EV charging cable was “negligible” — maybe five pounds — and requires specialized tools to remove. Unstripped, a typical 25-foot cable was worth less than $7 at a scrap yard.

“The financial reward hardly justifies the risk and effort involved,” the statement read.

The company advised station owners to put stations in high traffic, well-lit areas monitored by cameras to discourage cable theft.

Batiuk said Europe prevents cable theft by not having cables on its public chargers; drivers have to bring their own instead. Still, he questioned if a similar strategy would work in North America.

“There are now thousands of chargers across North America, so to replace all of them would be a rather gargantuan task.”

Anyone with information on the cable thefts in St. Albert should contact the RCMP at 780-458-7700 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.