Electricity Today T&D Magazine

A closer look at animal-caused outages at substations

BY BILL REICHARD, TransGard Systems

Every year, squirrels, raccoons, snakes, and other climbing animals cause substation outages across North America. According to a 2010 University of Minnesota study, the resulting estimated cost to electric utilities is between $15 million and $18 million per year. However, when commercial entities and consumer frustration are taken into consideration, the overall cost of these outages to electric utilities can cost the U.S. economy between $80 billion and $188 billion per year.

Utilities are recognizing that while the costs to perform actual substation repairs are significant, the cost to repair a reputation is much higher—and they are taking steps to install measures to keep climbing animals at bay.

WHY SUBSTATIONS ATTRACT ANIMALS Substations are a source of heat, shelter, protection, and food for a variety of animal species, which explains why the aforementioned animals are so...