Squirrel Causing power outages

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Sierrasparky

Sierrasparky

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
I ran across this article in USA today about
" suicide Squirrels driving utilities nuts"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-11-suicide-squirrels_N.htm

in the picture shown
The Lincoln Electric System uses a squirrel guard from a company called Central Maloney. The picture shows an older version of squirrel guard on a transformer bushing
That guy seems to sucking on disaster.

{Moderator's Note: I removed the photo. We don't allow images of dead animals. If anyone wants to see that, they can look at the article.}
 
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Maybe it's this type of squirrel...

army_squirrel1233748592.jpg
 
our system is plagued by pigeons - which is why we installed some barbed wire at poles where pigeons were reported to have caused line outages
 
I have installed many squirrel gaurds in subs. Once we had a company (Automotive) that had several outages from these guys, we did all of thier emergency services. They were starting to think we were training a team of suicide squirrels. I photoshopped this guy with our company shirt and hard hat for them.
 
Jraef:
That insurgent squirrel in the pic has an AT-4 84mm anti-armor weapon. He will be combat ineffective as he's holding it backwards
 
We had a customer that operated a large data center, the Facility manager was showing some investors from Japan around when the power went out, UPS are on line, generator starts all is fine.

The manager went ballistic and wanted a full report, the final report from the utility said squirrel. He refused to believe a simple squirrel could knock something as complicated as his facility off line and demanded further investigation.

So the head facility guy goes out to the pole and takes a picture of the fried squirrel laying at the base of the pole.
 
brian john said:
We had a customer that operated a large data center, the Facility manager was showing some investors from Japan around when the power went out, UPS are on line, generator starts all is fine.

The manager went ballistic and wanted a full report, the final report from the utility said squirrel. He refused to believe a simple squirrel could knock something as complicated as his facility off line and demanded further investigation.

So the head facility guy goes out to the pole and takes a picture of the fried squirrel laying at the base of the pole.
Click to expand...

Nature often trumps technology. Point in case.
 
Here's another one from over the weekend.

http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-centerville-house-explosion-092710,0,3298896.story

If the link goes away, the short shory is - squirrel climbs on a transformer and BAM! Surge starts house fire and causes gas leak. House blows up while firefighters are inside. House gone, tree rat dead. Good news - firefighters only received minor injuries...last one gets out of hospital tomorrow. God bless the smoke-eaters.
 
grich said:
If the link goes away, the short shory is . . . .
Click to expand...
Posting links is not a problem, so long as you give enough information to help the readers decide whether or not they want to click the link. If you are posting a link to a possibly disturbing photo (for my part, I can't handle seeing photos of third degree burns or dead animals before I have had my second cup of coffee :roll:), then please advise the readers of what the link will show. We will delete any such photos, if they are visible within a posted comment.
 
OK, irreverent comment time ... then I'm off for the day.

Want to catch a squirrel? It's easy. Just climb a tree and act like a nut.

Otherwise, I reccomend the services of either a "Critter Abatement Technician" or a "FEline Replacement Rodent Eliminating Technician." Both available at the local humane society.
 
charlie b said:
Posting links is not a problem, so long as you give enough information to help the readers decide whether or not they want to click the link. If you are posting a link to a possibly disturbing photo (for my part, I can't handle seeing photos of third degree burns or dead animals before I have had my second cup of coffee :roll:), then please advise the readers of what the link will show. We will delete any such photos, if they are visible within a posted comment.
Click to expand...

Content isn't the problem...it's just I don't know how long the story link will be valid. The only dead animal pic I'd ever want to post (very ripe raccoon in a 480-to-208 transformer) is something I didn't take a picture of, because I couldn't stand it!
 
Utilities often explain power events as "animal contact" when they can't figure out the cause of the "hit". Try a Google search nasdaq squirrel and see what you get.

Obviously the real issue is not caused by the animal, something else failed to function as designed.
 
catchtwentytwo said:
Utilities often explain power events as "animal contact" when they can't figure out the cause of the "hit". Try a Google search nasdaq squirrel and see what you get.

Obviously the real issue is not caused by the animal, something else failed to function as designed.
Click to expand...

not so with us. if the cause of an event is undetermined, we write "undetermined" as the cause. and it usually gets us a lot of trouble explaining.

animals which caused problems in the past for us included pigeons, snakes and people flying kites. lol
 
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