Farmblox’s security system protects EV charging infrastructure from copper theft

EV charging station cable theft is an infuriating problem. By some accounts, repairing and recommissioning a vandalized charging station can cost as much as $8,000 per charger, not including lost revenue and customer frustration—all for $#%&@ thieves to fence a few dollars’ worth of copper.

How to deal with this problem? Station toughs with flame flowers at charging stations overnight? To repeatedly victimized charging operators, this might not seem too harsh a reaction.

Several companies have developed more prosaic solutions. The newest of these is Farmblox, which offers a remote automation and monitoring platform that can track activity at remote sites in real time.

As Farmblox explains, its COP-R-LOCK security platform, originally developed to help farmers foil thefts at agricultural sites, uses a sensor network to detect suspicious activity and instantly alert operators, even in remote locations with limited connectivity.

The company developed COP-R-LOCK in collaboration with crime expert Bobby Rader, who has spent more than 15 years investigating rural infrastructure crime.

Farmblox gives operators tools to build their own field automation systems. Operators can add a custom array of sensors—from power outages to theft to valve pressure—to monitor their specific assets without internet access. If cable tampering, enclosure breaches or suspicious activity are detected, an alarm sounds on-site and operators receive immediate alerts through Farmblox’s mobile and desktop app.

“The same challenges we saw in agriculture exist in EV charging networks: remote assets, limited oversight, and the potential for enormous secondary losses from a single theft event,” said Nathan Rosenberg, CEO and co-founder of Farmblox. “Our goal is to give operators real-time visibility and immediate alerts so they can stop incidents before chargers go offline and drivers are impacted.”

Source: Farmblox