ESB networks has confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal that approximately 1,400 outages due to wildlife occurred on their network in 2016, with over 1,000 of these occurring over the summer months and in early autumn.
Some 380 of these power outages were caused by wildlife in the month of June alone, jumping from 40 reported in April, representing a 10-fold jump.
The ESB told the Irish Farmers Journal that power outages caused by wildlife greatly increases over the summer months due to a larger bird population and the introduction of migrating bird into the country.
A spokesperson for the ESB said: “Over the summer period, where farming activity increases, the amount of outages and damage to our network tends to increase as bird populations are disturbed, or are more active in seeking food.
“There are also seasonal effects noticeable when migrating bird populations come into the vicinity of our network in large numbers.”
However, these outages have caused much disruption to farming activity throughout the country.
It’s just a nuisance
Sean Cummins is one such farmer who suffered a power outage in recent weeks during his morning milking.
“It happened to us about two weeks ago when we were milking. At about 7:30am the power just shut off.
“The clusters fall off, the milk pump shuts off and the cooler shuts down. It’s just a nuisance because you have to wait around until it starts back up.
“It only happened twice, but I imagine neighbouring farmers and everyone on that line were also effected,” Cummins told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Deterrent methods
The ESB spokesperson said that numerous methods to deter the risk of wildlife coming into contact with electrical wires were in place.
These included the use of ultra-sonic wildlife deterrent devices, the use of game guards on overhead networks in high-risk areas (especially near waterways) and regular inspection patrols to identify wildlife activity near our network.
Power outages caused by wildlife in 2016 represented 10% of the total outages on the ESB network.
Breakdown of power outages caused by birds, by month
January – 60February – 40March – 55April – 48May – 115June – 380July – 200August – 200September – 115October – 90November – 50December – 60County council warning to EirGrid halts building work
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