Ever wonder why power outages occur even on a hot sunny day? What do you think are the major causes of a power outage? The very first thing that comes to our mind is harsh weather conditions like storms, strong winds, and hurricanes. Surprisingly, these are not the only reasons behind them. Shockingly the reason behind hundreds or thousands of power outages are animals interfering with electrical equipment.
Birds and other animals like squirrels, raccoons, cats, etc. have often been electrocuted from bare high voltage (HV) transmission lines, resulting in power shutdown in the whole area. Such incidents not only cause problems for the people residing in those localities but are also become life-threatening for the whole wildlife. One of the major reasons for wildfires is the spark produced when an HV line gets short-circuited due to the intervention of an animal.
According to a study, about 25% of all the power failures occurred are due to animals making contact with the HV lines. The point of concern for engineers at substations is that there is no possible way to foresee an animal finding its way to the HV line, which will ultimately lead to the power breakdown.
The interaction between animals and power transmission lines can cause line to line or line to ground fault or even both at the same time, ultimately leading to a blackout. This interruption can sometimes be prolonged as the dead body may get stuck between two conducting lines causing a severe short circuit. Bare metalwork is the main culprit bringing animals and power lines in direct contact with each other. By proper insulation of the metalwork power outages can be evaded significantly, for example, by using wildlife outage protection products. The silicone covers have been proven invaluable as they lead to elude the damage and serve the purpose in the protection of high voltage equipment like transformers, circuit breakers, switch gears, etc.
MIDSUN E/Products come in different forms depending on the voltage level, location of bare metalwork, and geographical location of the power transmission line or substations.
Some of them can be installed and removed despite energised conditions. Some common variants are:
· Silicone tubes or sleeves
· Silicone tapes
· Silicone Sheets
· Silicone Preformed covers
· Barriers
Each of the above products serves different purposes. Highly durable and reusable split seam silicone tubes are used where breaking an electrical connection is not recommended. Tapes are self-fusing and self-bonding. Customisable silicone sheets are deployed to cover irregular-shaped conducting equipment. Silicon covers are hydrophobic and highly flexible used to provide insulation of up to 25kV at connections. Transparent polycarbonate thermoplastic barriers are supposed to stop the locomotion of animals over electric equipment. All these covers made by Midsun Group are designed to provide the best tracking resistance, thermal endurance, and UV resistance to ensure an uninterrupted power supply. They will increase the reliability of the whole power system and help in protect the animals’ life.